


Nomenclature

by TalkMagically



Category: NCIS
Genre: Case Fic, Drama, Gen, Mob story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:57:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 42,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7849555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalkMagically/pseuds/TalkMagically
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A person's whole personality can be described by one simple thing. Their name. But what if someone has more than one name?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

"That fat French fuck has been dead all these years and he's still haunting us," the man in the lieutenant's seat spat out. "We just can't get out of his shadow."

"We will, Colin. We will. Be patient." Colin looked at the man on his left, the man at the head of the table, with disbelief.

"Seriously? Pops, we..."

"Quiet, Colin," his father snapped. "Rene Benoit may have been a sneaky man in life but his reach will only go so far in death. We will simply wait out this sudden burst of energy the French families have. They will burn themselves out eventually. Those who are patient will benefit in the aftermath."

"That may take some time, Sir. What do we do while we wait?" a third man pointed out. He sat across from Colin, in the other lieutenant's seat, and held himself in a more calm demeanor.

"Survive." Came the simple reply. "We out lasted the Russians. We out lasted the Italians. We _will_ out last the French. Continue with business, as always."

Most of the men at the table gave their various forms of acknowledgment, shuffling through their papers to make sure they didn't forget anything. That last sentence from the Don was a common dismissal for the end of their meetings.

"Mickey," The Don spoke up, interrupting the others. He was smiling knowingly at the man who sat at the other end of the table. "You haven't made a peep since you arrived. Care to comment on anything we've covered?"

Colin smirked, leaning back in his chair. He knew this would be good. As Mickey's roommate all their years together at college, he understood how the man thought.

"As the only one here who's had any sort of friendly relationship with Rene Benoit and his family, it's clear to me that the French families are only so arrogant because Rene's quote unquote 'throne' remains empty." Mickey sat forward in his seat as he spoke, creating a steeple with his fingers on the table.

"Go on." The Don pressed. Mickey gave him a wicked grin before letting out a nonchalant shrug.

"Then it's simple, isn't it? Get his daughter to name a successor. Surely her word will have more say with the families than that of the CIA's." Colin burst out laughing when Mickey finished speaking.

"That, my brother, is genius!" Colin chortled, pointing Mickey as he spoke.

"But how will we convince her to do so, Mickey?" The Don asked, ignoring his son's outburst. The younger man's grin turned from wicked to cocky.

"Let _me_ worry about that."


	2. The Calm Before the Storm

"No, Tony." Tim cut off his gregarious partner before the man could finish talking. "I'm not going to partake in your little scheme. I don't want 'death by office supply' to be listed in my obituary, thank you very much."

"Come on, McSidekick! Ziva will never suspect you to actually participate. That's what makes the plan so fool proof!" Tony whined across the room. The two men were currently double checking their crime scene while the rest of the team did their various duties back at the Yard.

"Not entirely fool proof since a fool created it." Tim shot back, smothering a smirk at Tony's put-out look.

" _Fine_. No pranking Ziva." Tony started to turn back to the closest he was looking through but stopped. "What about our Mistress of the Dark? Will you prank Abby?"

"Dear, god, Tony!" Tim finally let out a laugh, looking at Tony in disbelief. "I know April Fool's Day is coming up but what you've been suggesting is a death wish. Why don't you play the ultimate prank on the others and not do anything? They're all going to be on edge, anyway, expecting you to do something. Making them walk on egg shells all day long will teach them not to assume anything."

Tony paused, considering what Tim had just told him. Admittedly, he had never gone that route before. And Tim was right. The others were already starting to put their hackles up in expectation of the coming prankster's holiday. Letting them go on full 'Red Alert' for no reason would irritate them more than any trivial prank he could come up with.

"Alright, McThinker, no pranking Team Gibbs. But we still gotta do something. Who would be the most unsuspecting person in the Yard?"

"The Director?" A look of horror appeared on Tony's face at Tim's suggestion.

"And you called me foolish!" Tim shrugged, an innocent look on his face as he shut down the computer he was looking through.

"What? I was just answering your question."

"We will be head slapped into the next century if we prank Vance." Tim grinned with a chuckle.

"That's the genius of it, Tony. No one, not even Gibbs, would consider the idea of Vance being pranked by one of us. In fact, they're all wondering what you're going to do to me. Imagine their surprise when they find out we partnered together this year instead."

"Still. It's the _Director_ you're talking about." Tony insisted, feeling a bit uneasy at the sudden role reversal between the two of them.

"If we keep it relatively low key, it'll be easier to do than if we pranked one of the others. Vance considers himself safe and that makes him the perfect target." Scrunching his face at Tim's logic, Tony closed the closet with a thud.

"Let's go, McGee. There's nothing new here. Maybe we'll have a better idea of what to look for after finding a few leads." Chuckling at Tony's avoidance, Tim nodded in agreement and grabbed his kit before following his partner out the door. He waited until they were in the car before saying anything else.

"So, Vance?" Tony winced.

"I didn't realize you were the more daring of the two of us, McEvil." Tim rolled his eyes, giving Tony an expectant look. "Ok, let's prank Vance this year. This is going to take a lot more planning than usual."

"We can start tonight. It's Thursday. The others won't bat an eyelash if we beg off hanging out as a group to have a pizza night since we'll most likely be stuck at work tomorrow and won't be able to do it then."

"Why do I get the feeling you've been thinking about this for a while?" Tony asked in an accusatory tone.

"Since when do I suggest anything without having thoroughly thought it over first?" Tim countered. "If I didn't think we could do it I wouldn't have suggested Vance."

"Well, what ever we come up with better make the head slaps worth it. When we get caught, and we _will_ be, Gibbs is going to make our lives living hell for a while." Tony gripped the steering wheel tighter at the thought of having to face Gibbs' wrath.

"It won't be anything we haven't encountered before, when it comes to Gibbs. It'll be with Vance where we have to cover our asses." Tim insisted.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Tony rose his eyebrows at Tim's statement, being unable to lift a single eyebrow like Tim could.

"I've been giving Vance's kids some computer safety lessons. We exchange emails regularly." Tim replied simply as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You want to get his kids involved."

"Yep. Could probably get Jackie involved, as well, if the idea is good enough. What wife doesn't want to stick it to her husband every once in a while?" Tim's smirk came back full force. Tony shook his head with a disbelieving scoff. If they could convince Jackie to help them, all their bases would be covered.

"Alright. Planning starts tonight." Tony confirmed with finality.

* * *

When Tony and Tim walked off the elevator, they both froze at seeing Fornell, Sacks, and Kort in the Bull Pen. Surely seeing all three of them at once meant the apocalypse was coming.

"What are _they_ doing here?" Tony hissed.

"Your guess is as good as mine, Tony." Tim replied in a wary tone. He pushed at Tony's back to get the man moving. "But we won't find out 'til we're over there."

Grumbling something about his good day coming to an end under his breath, Tony reluctantly starting walking to the Bull Pen again.

"And the twins finally arrive." Kort commented in his usual smooth tone and accessory smirk.

"Boss, what's going on?" Tim asked as if Kort hadn't said anything. Ziva quickly elbowed Tony, cutting off his retort before he had a chance to start saying it. Gibbs jerked his head at Fornell to explain the situation to Tim and Tony.

"Backlash from Rene Benoit's death has finally started to affect the other families. And not just the French. The Russians, the Italians, and the Irish are all up in arms. They're worried the French in-fighting will spill over onto them."

"I thought those three groups were all settled into their businesses and had nothing to worry about from the others." Tony pointed out. His face was stony from the mention of Rene Benoit. "The French families are relatively new to the scene compared to the others. All the older French families have either died out or retreated from the US. That should make the others more than able to handle them."

"The CIA has been unable to keep a steady hand on the Benoit family since Rene's death. Our plants just don't have enough pull to keep themselves in power for long. It's causing uneasiness." Kort supplied.

"You mean if a man outside of CIA control gets into power in the family, he may very well declare war on one of the other families. Or the Russians. Or Italians. Or Irish." Tim filled in all the blanks quickly, wondering what that had to do with NCIS.

"Correct, McGee." Fornell took over again. "With a threat of this magnitude, it's been suggested that multiple agencies get involved. If a war of the families starts it could take us years to end it."

"The case is being handed over to Balboa's team. We're taking over the Irish aspect of the operation." Gibbs butted in. "They've been relatively quiet compared to the others, which could mean a variety of things."

"NCIS is best at figuring out the unique cases and the silence of the Irish family is an odd one." Fornell continued, used to Gibbs' interruptions. "We think they have been starting to move a lot of their business to the digital world so having you work on that is best, McGee. You're skills with a computer makes you an important asset to the operation. Don't expect much field work with this, if any at all."

Tim nodded in understanding. Not many field agents had the same educational background as he did. And with at least four families in the Irish corner, his work was going to be cut out for him. It was pretty much guaranteed that he would be running back and forth between the various agency buildings in the foreseeable future.

"Where do we begin?" Tony asked.

"Everything we have on the Irish families is on its way here, DiNozzo. It's up to you guys to decide where you're going to start." Tony moved his focus over to Gibbs. He was assuming that since Vance wasn't there that Gibbs and the others had already met with the man.

"We're going to make sure all the FBI's information is up-to-date, then move on from there. You and Ziva are going to start at the bottom of the work ladder to see if any of them are recruiting more than usual. That will give us a direction at aim at. McGee, you know better than anyone where to start with the computer stuff. Vance has given you permission to fall back on Cyber Crimes since you're pretty much heading that aspect of the operation." Gibbs summarized.

"Our own cyber division is being pulled into this, as well, for the other parts." Sacks finally spoke up, directing his words at Tim. "Since we're covering the Russians and the Italians, they'll more likely be in a free-for-all than anything else. Leads could come from anywhere. If you need anything, go through me. I'll be the one directing our cyber teams in the directions we need them to go."

"Got it, Sacks. After I have a chance to go through all the files you guys have on the Irish families and delegate tasks to Cyber Crimes, I'll schedule a time with you for me to come over to the Hoover Building. I might be able to give you a direction right away." Tim mentally made a check list of everything he needed to get done right away, especially a few things that may help Tony and Ziva.

"Now that DiNozzo and McGee have been briefed on the situation, I had better get back to Langley." Kort said to make his exit. Gibbs and Fornell made no move to stop him.

"Wait." Tim stepped in his way, gaining the attention of all the others. Kort looked at him expectantly. "Jeanne Benoit. What is the Benoit Family's view on her?"

"Why do you ask?" Kort prodded. Tony's jaw clenched as he turned away from Tim, having hoped she wouldn't be mentioned.

"She's Rene Benoit's _daughter_ , Kort." Tim snapped. "A member of a rival family or a disgruntled member of the Benoit Family may go after her in retaliation for something her father did since they can't go after a dead man. She's an innocent bystander in all of this. Is she going to need protection?"

"Protection has already been offered, McGee. Miss Benoit turned it down." Kort almost succeeded in hiding a frown. "It may have to do with her connection to the Murphy Family."

"Jeanne is fooling around with the Irish?" Tony couldn't resist asking, turning back. Kort shook his head.

"She's a close acquaintance of Mickey Murphy." Fornell and Sacks let out a few choice curses at Kort's words, confusing the NCIS MCRT. "Mickey Murphy is the Murphy Family's choice hit man. He has visited the Benoit household a few times over the years but I never got to meet the man. I was always sent out on business during his visits. The Murphy Family has been keeping any details about him secret and Rene Benoit seemed to agree on that."

"What do you mean?" Tim couldn't help but ask. Something was off.

"Mickey has a reputation of playing with his food before he eats it." Kort explained. "Other than Miss Benoit and blood members of the Murphy Family, no one alive knows what he looks like because Don Murphy won't allow him to meet outsiders unless he's ordered Mickey to kill them."

"Then how does Jeanne know what he looks like?" Tony pressed on.

"They met before he was formally recruited into the family. I don't know how."

"Wait, recruited? He's not a blood member?" Tim's eyebrow shot up.

"Yes. Mickey Murphy is the name he was given _after_ joining the family. That much I know. But I'm sure the FBI files cover everything else. Like I said, very little is known. May I go, now?" That last question came out with a tone of sarcasm, which Tim rolled his eyes at as he stepped aside. Everyone waited until Kort was on the elevator before saying anything else.

"What wasn't Kort telling, Fornell?" Tim immediately went to the point. Fornell and Sacks exchanged looks before Fornell answered.

"He essentially told you everything we know about Mickey Murphy. He's Don Murphy's number one hit man. If you have Mickey Murphy on your ass then you've really fucked up. And you won't know it, either, until you're right about to die. Kort wasn't kidding about the man's reputation." Fornell shuddered at the thought. "Gossip from blood members of the Murphy Family who've attended his hits tells us that Mickey will introduce himself by his birth name when meeting his mark and won't reveal who he is until after he's already disabled the person from fighting back. They find it hilarious how easy it is for him to lull his marks into a sense of security before attacking."

"We should see how often Don Murphy has been calling upon his number one hit man." Ziva suggested, seeing a reason to join the conversation. "If everyone is on alert then this man may either be called upon more or less than usual. It all depends on Don Murphy's reaction to the threat from the French Families."

"I'll stick Keating on the computer trail right away." Tim offered. "If the Irish families are going digital then he might find something there."

Gibbs nodded in approval of how his agents have been handling their sudden shift in work and what they chose to focus on.

"Should head back to the Hoover Building, Fornell, to get your own base of operations set up. We'll be starting as soon as your files are all delivered."

"Probably. We need to go through everything the CIA has provided us about the Benoit family. I'll call later to set up a schedule for updates." Giving everyone a nod of farewell, Fornell headed off to the elevator with Sacks in tow.

"Alright." Gibbs returned to his desk. "You all know your tasks. Prepare what you think you're going to need for when the files get here."

Exchanging slightly overwhelmed looks, Tony and Ziva returned to their own desks to start calling contacts while Tim headed to the back elevator to go down to the sub basement.


	3. Strange Events

Tim leaned over Keating's shoulder with a hand on the back of his chair, talking to the man in lowered tones.

"Keating, I have a special project for you. While all the others are focused on the general business of the Irish Families, I want you to look for information on one specific thing. Or, should I say, one specific person."

"Alright." Keating nodded, knowing from experience that any task coming from a member of Gibbs' team would be given with high standards to meet.

"The FBI and CIA haven't been able to find much information on Mickey Murphy. He's Don Murphy's choice hit man and the Don has been keeping details about Mickey quiet. I want you to mole into the Murphy Family's documents and see if you can find anything, even if it's just a picture." Tim reached for the file stack he had put down when he came over and pulled out the second file folder from the top, handing it over to Keating. It only had two sheets of paper in it. "This is everything that is known about Mickey Murphy. It might give you an idea of where to look for more."

"Will do, Agent McGee." Keating took the file quickly and slipped it under his keyboard. McGee clearly didn't want this open to the rest of Cyber Crimes.

"Great. Email me regularly with updates. Even if you don't find anything on Mickey Murphy, something you come across might help elsewhere." Patting Keating on the shoulder, Tim stood upright and picked his file stack back up. He cleared his throat before speaking louder to the whole group. "Ok, everyone! I'm going to head back up to the Bull Pen to see if the others have any specific thing they want us to look in to. I'll be working from my computer up there to stay in the loop and keep communication going between us and the others. What we find will tell them what to look for, themselves, and vice versa. If you feel like you have found something then speak up, no matter how trivial it is. A mistake made with the small things could give us a break at finding information about the big things. As the saying goes, 'The Devil is in the details'."

After looking over everyone slowly to make sure they all understood what they needed to do, Tim spun on his heel and headed to the elevator. As soon as the doors closed behind him he opened the top file again to read it over. The O'Riley Family, the Dunne Family, the McCarthy Family, and the Murphy Family were the primary force of the Irish on the Eastern seaboard and generally lead the rest of the Irish families in the country by proxy or through marriage. Mickey Murphy was a special priority given his anonymity, which was why Tim singled out Keating for the job, but he felt that the rest of them should start with the O'Riley family. Everything they did looked suspiciously legit, meaning it was everything but. They also had been cozy with the Russians in the past and that could lead to a power move later on if a war of the families couldn't be prevented.

"So are Zee-va and I doing a general sweep, McGee?" Tony asked before Tim was even back at his desk. "Our contacts need something specific to give us any answers."

"Start with the O'Riley Family." Tim provided as he brought his computer to life with a wiggle of his mouse. "All the currents records on them are eerily legal, even if just by a hair. I don't trust any of it. Feels like a house of cards, to me."

"Why would they make a house out of cards and why are you feeling it?" Ziva asked with a look of confusion. Tim couldn't prevent a snort coming out and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose while Tony openly laughed.

"They're pretending to be legit is what I meant, Ziva. Careful planning on their part is the only thing keeping everything from being exposed. If you two can poke and prod in the right places it all should come falling down."

"O'Riley Family it is. You going to go submit yourself to Slacks any time soon?" Tim raised an eyebrow at Tony's question about his end of things. The man normally went cross eyed at the mere mention of computer work.

"Not for a day or so. I'm going to let them dig into their own files before arriving with even more things for them to work on. That should also give Cyber Crimes enough time to come up with a good list of leads so Sacks and I can start comparing notes right away. We're definitely going to find some connections between our work and the FBI's, at least as far as the O'Riley Family is concerned. They're friendly with the Russians. Expect to see Sacks coming here as often as I go there."

"Oh, goody. Alright, Zee, let's go ruffle some feathers and see which little birdie is willing to talk first."

"We will call in periodically, McGee, to pass along information." Ziva informed Tim as she and Tony collected their things. "Since it is already mid-day we may be out quite late tonight. Expect calls to keep coming until we say otherwise."

"Got it. By the amount of files I need to go through and disperse through Cyber Crimes I'll most likely be here all night, myself. I'll redirect my desk phone to my cell if I need to leave for anything so neither of you are stuck talking to one of the techs."

"And watches synchronized! Talk to you later, McHacker." Tony mock saluted Tim and earned an exasperated shove from Ziva towards the elevator. Tim let out a chuckle at his partners' antics, knowing that not even Tony would be in a joking mood for long as they dug deeper in to mob politics.

* * *

"Jeanne, dear, please come in." Jeanne Benoit smiled widely as she walked into the Murphy household. She was greeted at the door by the Head of Staff, Vivian O'Malley. A distant cousin of the Lady of the House, Vivian was a kind woman who could be stricter than a nun with a ruler at times but was otherwise viewed like a favorite aunt by everyone, including some of the older adults. No servant in this household blended into the woodwork with demure personalities, that was for sure.

"Thank you, Vivian! It's so great to be state-side again and I couldn't turn down an offer to come stay a while. Please tell me Patrick is in the house. I have been missing his beef stew." Jeanne let her bags be whisked away by some of the lower ranking servants to whatever room she would be staying in as she spoke with Vivian. The first and last time she made a deal about her bags disappearing so quickly was not a pleasant experience. The woman in front of her had high expectations that the rest of the staff feared to fail.

"Yes, Ricky is in house. I'll pass along your request. The kitchen should be stocked well enough for him to make some, even tonight. He hasn't started on dinner yet." Vivian led Jeanne deeper into the manor, occasionally saying a word here and there to the staff they passed.

"That sounds excellent. Any new gossip I need to catch up on?" Jeanne's eyes wandered around to the various pieces of art that decorated the hallways. The Murphy's didn't have a large collection, few pieces in the building were worth more than a thousand or two, but there was enough to allow a small rotation in what was being shown. Penelope Murphy, the Lady of the House, prided herself in choosing art based on what it actually looked like instead of what it cost. Ugly artwork wasn't worth the money in her book and it led to a very beautiful home.

"Around the house? Kelly and Mark have been doing some extra work at night, if you know what I mean. Apparently the guest library is very dirty and needs a thorough cleaning _daily_." Vivian answered in a stage whisper. "Fredrick and Penelope have yet to walk in on them, so I've been allowing it."

"It's about time those two stopped ignoring all that sexual tension."

"The rest of the staff agrees with you. We've had a few marriages, a couple deaths, children and grandchildren have been born. The basic gossip that I'm sure the others will want to tell you themselves." Vivian began to slow her walk as they approached the rear entrance of the building, which lead to a large patio.

"Is that all?" Jeanne wondered. Usually Vivian had more than that every time she came. Vivian hesitated a moment before turning away from the door to talk with her guest face-to-face. She dropped her voice down to a full whisper.

"Fredrick and the boys have all been on edge lately. None of them will say why. Mickey hasn't been in for a Sunday dinner for a couple months and Colin doesn't even acknowledge it, as if he _knows_ what is keeping Mickey away. You remember how bad Colin can get when he goes without seeing Mickey for long periods of time. It's like the lad balances Colin's temper. But Colin hasn't acted out. It's disturbing." Jeanne frowned as Vivian described the serious side of the household. If it's been a couple months since Vivian has seen Mickey then something was going on. Jeanne may not be privy to details, same way most of the women of the Murphy household weren't privy, but growing up with her father helped her learn a few things. Things were bad if it was keeping Mickey away.

"You're here!" Jeanne zoned back in to reality, having missed Vivian turn back around and open the patio doors. She smiled widely as she hurried forward to hug the hyper young woman who had greeted her.

"Bridget! I hope everything has been going good with you since we last spoke. Last month? Was it last month?" Locks of red hair flew about as Bridget shook her head.

"No, month before last. But that's ok. It just leaves us with more to talk about this time. How long are you staying? Daddy didn't say." Bridget and Jeanne walked over to the lounge chairs while Vivian made her leave, having delivered her guest.

"I was thinking a week, allowing a day or so for me to get through my jet lag. Is it true Mickey hasn't been here in a while? I was looking forward to seeing him." Jeanne wasn't questioning Vivian's gossip and she knew the older woman wouldn't see it that way. Asking Bridget to confirm would just lead to more information that Vivian would admit she didn't know.

"He hasn't been at a Sunday dinner in a while, no, but I have crossed paths with him a few times when I've been coming home from evening soirees with my friends. I don't know why he's been visiting Daddy and Colin so late at night, it's been tricky to get him to say anything, and the visits don't even last that long. One time I got home just as he was arriving. He was gone by the time I had changed into pajamas and came back downstairs to say good night to Daddy. And you know I don't dillydally in getting ready for bed." Jeanne's face scrunched up in contemplation of what the late-night trysts could mean, especially since Mickey was avoiding telling Bridget anything about them. It was common knowledge, at least to everyone except Bridget, that Mickey was wrapped around Bridget's little finger. He was worse than the young woman's father, who doted on her more than her sisters because she was the youngest of all his children. Mickey's silence spoke volumes to Jeanne.

"I'm sure he has a pretty good reason for keeping everything so secret. Maybe he did something bad in the house and is afraid of Vivian finding out it was his fault." Both women fell into a fit of giggles, knowing Mickey would be rightfully scared if he _did_ do something to earn Vivian's wrath.


	4. Reports

" _From the looks of it, the O'Riley Family has been cutting back on their recruiting. By a lot._ " Tony reported. The last bits of sunlight were starting to sink below the horizon as Tim looked out the Bull Pen windows, listening to Tony's latest call. " _They're worried about a spy sneaking his or her way into the ranks._ "

"So it's an honest possibility that they have something to hide." Tim commented.

" _Definitely. I don't know what's going through your brain, McComputer, but I think the O'Riley Family is closing ranks because they're worried their fragile web of lies will fall apart at the slightest prod._ "

"Yeah. I was thinking something similar. Even Ziva said as much, herself, when she called in an hour ago. I have part of Cyber Crimes focusing on the recruiting records we've got for the O'Riley Family that overlap with their business records. If they're worried then there has got to be a crack somewhere for us to sneak in."

" _I'll keep looking, myself. Maybe the 'recruiting office' is not where we should be looking._ " Tony suggested. Tim nodded in agreement, despite knowing Tony couldn't see him. " _I'll check with a few contacts who may have business connections with the O'Riley's. They don't admit to having the connections but it's pretty much obvious to anyone paying attention. If I drop a few hints, I may be able to get a foot in at least the doggy door._ "

"Doggy door? Seriously?" Tim let out a snort. Tony's crack was unexpected after an afternoon full of digging in cyberspace.

" _Any way in, Probie. Any way in._ "

"I got that. Alright, I'll take your new information and go compare notes with who I've labeled as project leaders in Cyber Crimes. I've pretty much got a routine going, now, on when I go down there for updates and they're expecting me soon."

" _Just as long as you remember to eat, McLeader. Last thing any of us need right now is Abby and Ducky tag teaming one of us._ "

"Too late. They've already gone after Gibbs. They guilt tripped him into going home a while ago since he pulled an all-nighter last night." A sharp inhale sounded over the phone line.

" _Damn._ "

"Tell me about it. I'm worried about them going after me, next, but I can't leave until you and Ziva call it quits for the night. Please don't answer any calls from Abby or Ducky. I'm still waiting for a call from Sacks."

" _I don't know, McGee._ " Tony replied in a wary tone. " _You're asking me to avoid two people who are perfectly capable of removing any forensic evidence from the scene of a crime._ "

"Chicken." Tim poked back. "At least hold them back until I get that call. I sent a carrier to the Hoover Building earlier with printouts for Sacks to look over. I need his reply before I'll feel comfortable with sending anyone home."

" _Fine_." Tony relented. " _I've got one last person to meet before my contacts start turning me away. Business hours are starting soon. They can't risk me running into one of their customers._ "

"Coming back to the Yard?" Tim heavily hinted that he wanted Tony at the office.

" _I'll grab dinner before coming back_." Tony assured him before hanging up. Letting out a snort, Tim set his phone back in its cradle and turned his attention to his computer. A document search had been running during his and Tony's conversation, but unfortunately it wasn't finished yet. Tim was working on creating summary files on the four Irish families, which required a lot of mind numbing computer searches, and was feeling the downside of being considered one of the head agents of a multi agency operation. He was one of the few who had to worry about all the administration details.

"Agent McGee?" Tim looked up to see one of the agents from Cyber Crimes standing with a file folder, fidgeting slightly.

"Yes, Agent Wilder?" The woman bit her lip in hesitation before closing the distance between her and Tim's desk. She quickly set the file folder on an empty space next to his keyboard.

"I know you're due to come down for an update soon, but I just couldn't wait." Tim nodded in understanding.

"It's not an issue, Wilder. What did you find?"

"The Dunne Family has been making some deals with some of the Italians. Manpower, weapons, territory. It appears they're preparing to make a preemptive strike against one of the French families." Tim immediately snatched the file up and opened it. If plans were already in the works then they had a deadline. He could see what Agent Wilder was talking about as he skimmed over the documents she brought with her up to the Bull Pen, frowning at a few details. Setting the file down, Tim ripped the top two sheets from his legal notepad where he wrote down all the information Tony had reported and handed it over to Wilder.

"This is what Agent DiNozzo just called in. Have Zimmerman look it over and spread the info to the corresponding agents who need it. I'm running your file over to the Hoover Building." He stood up as he explained to Wilder what to do, collecting his things.

"Ok." She stuttered, surprised at Tim's sudden urgency. "What should I tell him if he has any questions?"

"To wait. If need be, I'll come down and explain when I get back from speaking with Sacks." Sure that Tony's information would get to where it needed to be, Tim double checked his computer one last time before dashing for the elevator.

* * *

"I'm sorry, McGee. I just haven't had the time to call you about those papers you sent earlier." Sacks said over the heads of the various technicians in the main office area he worked in. Tim waved it off, weaving his way through the desks to the FBI agent.

"That's not what I'm here for. Cyber Crimes found evidence that the Dunne Family is making deals with some of the Italians that allude to a preemptive strike against the French." Sacks snatched the file from Tim's hands before he even finished explaining why he came over in person.

"Seriously?" Sacks flipped through the documents in the file at a rapid pace, skimming them to read the main bullet points. "This is not good. I mean, seriously _not_ good."

"Why do I get the feeling you have more to add?" Tim asked rhetorically with a sigh, crossing his arms.

"That report you sent over earlier? I compared the numbers against our own to see where the connection points are. The Italian Families are stockpiling."

"Ok. Not good." Tim agreed, his voice raised half an octave.

"Tell me about it. The French really must be pissing people off if the Italians are stockpiling for an offensive against them." Sacks closed the file and raised his head to face Tim again. "We're not getting much on the Russians, yet. They still depend on good, old fashioned paperwork for most of their business. I'm currently waiting on Fornell to return from contacting our few undercover agents and CIs that we have among the Russians."

"Ziva mentioned leaving her own Russian contacts for last for that very same reason. I expect to get a lot of information from her the next time she calls in."

"Have you guys started on any footwork or is everything through Cyber Crimes right now?" Sacks inquired.

"Gibbs has been covering that. As far as I know, he has a handful of agents collecting information from all our official contacts. But Ducky and Abby sent him home a couple hours ago to get some sleep because he pulled an allnighter last night for the case we were working on, so I can't check in with him until he has a chance to look over his reports tomorrow morning."

"Could you ask him to pass things along to Fornell after you have your morning meeting with him?" Tim gave Sacks an amused, knowing look.

"Using me as a buffer, Sacks?"

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, Agent McGee." The FBI agent insisted, turning to a nearby technician. Letting out a snort, Tim shook his head and allowed himself a smile.

"I'll mention it to him. Do you have anything for me right now?"

"Not really. Too many leads to cover. I may not have anything for you for a few days." Sacks admitted with a frown, turning back to Tim.

"Want me to hold back on updates until you have something? I'll send over anything I think you may need to know right away, but I'll hold back anything I think you can wait to find out." Tim offered.

"That may be a good idea. At the rate things are going, I'll have to pull in more agents from other offices. I can easily see us getting overwhelmed very quickly."

"Ok. That's what I'm gonna do. We may need to get things done quickly to prevent a mob war, but we don't want to rush anything either."

"Speaking of..." Sacks began, a hesitant look appearing on his face. "Anything new on Mickey Murphy? I know he's only one man, but..."

"He's important." Tim finished. "Nothing yet. I was thinking that we should keep our search for Mickey on the down low. The man obviously has ways of finding things out. We don't want him learning that we're doing an in-depth search for him."

"Good point. For now on, I'll view no news as bad news. I'll work to keep Fornell off your back when he gets impatient."

"Thanks. I have a feeling we're going to be working overtime just to keep him and Gibbs placated." Tim announced to with a hollow feeling settling in his stomach. It was never enjoyable to see inevitable chaos coming.


	5. Plans of All Sorts

Mickey Murphy made his way down the dark hallway of the family manor, paying no mind to the beautiful decorations he was passing. His only aim was the door at the end of the hallway with light leaking out from the bottom.

"The Italians are stockpiling." Was the first thing to come out of his mouth when he entered the room. The others in the room went silent at his sudden interruption, and when his words fully registered in their minds they started looking at each other with worried expressions.

"Are you sure, Mickey?" Fredrick Murphy questioned, the previous discussion of the room forgotten. Mickey scoffed as he approached his customary place at the other end of the table from Fredrick.

"As sure as I am that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. This is _terrible_ news. What the hell are we going to do about it?"

"How do you even know this?" Colin shot back. Mickey gave his 'brother' a glare, choosing to ignore the question. Colin wasn't an idiot. He'd figure it out.

"What's important is that you found out before they did anything." Fredrick insisted, slamming his hands flat on the table in emphasis.

"We must warn the other families." The Lieutenant across from Colin began. "This stockpiling must either be prevented or equaled. We will need help to do that."

"No! We cannot make our response so obvious." Mickey snapped.

"And why not?" The Lieutenant inquired with a frosty tone. "We will be leaving ourselves wide open."

"Because, you idiot, Mickey's source obviously caught it when we didn't. They'll catch us just as easily. It's called 'Snowballing'." Colin answered with just as much attitude before Mickey could. He was still frowning slightly from Mickey's dismissal of his own question, but Colin wasn't about to let one of the others speak like that to him. Fredrick rubbed his face with both of his hands, letting out a sigh as he thought over the predicament Mickey had dropped on their laps. Dreadful news and no real way to react to it.

"We need to find a way to slow them down." He finally declared. The others all turned towards their Don in expectation of his next words. "And make it look like we've known about their actions all along. Do research, ask for favors, call in debts. I don't care how you get it done. Just do it!"

That last shouted statement made most of the men at the table jump in surprise before rushing out of the room to meet the demand. In sort order, only Mickey and blood members of the Murphy Family remained in the room. Now the real exchange of information could begin.

"NCIS or FBI?" Colin immediately asked, requesting Mickey's exact source.

"The stockpiling info came from the FBI." Mickey started with a somber tone. "But that's certainly not the worst of it. An agent from NCIS' Cyber Crime unit discovered that the Dunne's are working with the Italians. They've probably been compliant with the stockpiling since the beginning."

"Who all knows this?" A cousin of Colin's asked.

"Multiple people from both agencies know one or the other, but currently only Special Agent Ronald Sacks and Special Agent Timothy McGee know it all. They're the contact point between the two agencies. It's fair to assume that their respective teams will know in the morning." Mickey supplied. "I suggest a rotating watch, to keep our men from being noticed right away. We need to keep our bases covered."

"Not to mention we want them to stay _alive_ to maintain our supply of information. The other families will want their heads if any of this is discovered." Colin pointed out. Mickey let out a snort at the obviousness of that.

"Pops..." Mickey began, wondering how to make his proposition. "I think we should have a plan in place in case things get too hot for the girls to be around."

Fredrick remained silent, looking over his surrogate son while the man kept his eyes on the table. He was deeply disturbed by the proposal. If Mickey wanted an escape plan created for the women then he wasn't quite sharing everything he knew. But Fredrick trusted the young man with his life. He was sure Mickey would reveal the unknown in good time.

"Jeanne is in house." Mickey looked up in surprise at Fredrick's sudden confession. He had known that Jeanne was back stateside but didn't think she'd come here first thing. "She and Bridget have been conspiring to kidnap you since you haven't attended a Sunday dinner in weeks. Perhaps you should quell their unrealistic notions and come to the next one. And go visit them before you leave."

Mickey recognized a dismissal when he saw one. He gave his information. Now it was time for him to leave, so he may be granted that oh, so precious 'plausible deniability' that the Don insisted he have for some reason. Apparently not being involved in the planning of the actual kill took the salt out of the wound of him doing the deed.

"Alright. I shall go bid them both good night before I head home." Standing up, Mickey nodded a farewell towards Colin before heading out the door.

* * *

"Come in!" Bridget called to the person knocking on her bedroom door. She and Jeanne were currently sitting on her bed, going over their plan to snatch Mickey the next time he entered the manor.

"Pops tells me you two plan on kidnapping me." The two women looked up in surprise when the object of their planning spoke.

"Mickey!" Came in stereo, but Bridget beat Jeanne to him with pure speed. Mickey instinctively wrapped his arms around Bridget's waist to keep them from falling over when she made a running leap at him. He let out a laugh and spun her around, putting her down and reaching to hug Jeanne as she walked up to him at a more sedate pace.

"You, Mr. Murphy, have been a very bad boy." Jeanne chided with a small smile. "You've been freaking Vivian out by not coming to Sunday dinner."

"I am sorry about that." Mickey told the both of them, having the decency to express a slightly embarrassed look at the scolding. "My day job has been keeping me very busy. Between that and everything Pops has been telling me to do, I just haven't had much free time lately. I'll make an effort to attend this coming Sunday."

"You better. Otherwise I'm going forward with our kidnap plan. I'll tie you up in the basement and never let you out." Bridget warned him with a flick at his nose. Jeanne reached her hand up to cover the smirk forming on her face. She had seen others do that to Mickey and get their wrists grabbed with enough force that she had thought they'd bruise. To see Bridget do it and get a smile in response had to be the ultimate proof of just how smitten the man was.

"There'd be quite a few people looking for me, Bridget. How would you keep them from finding me?" Mickey poked a finger at Bridget's side, knowing she was ticklish, and made the young woman yip as a result. Bridget smacked a hand against his chest with a frown.

"I don't know." She replied with an obstinate look. "I'll figure that out later."

With a quick turn on her heel, Bridget stalked back to her bed with every ounce of Irish stubbornness she had inherited from her parents. Sharing an amused look, Jeanne returned to her place on the bed while Mickey grabbed the stool from Bridget's vanity table.

"What have you two been up to lately?" Mickey questioned as he settled onto the stool. "Happy be to back in the States, Jeanne?"

"Yes, I'm very happy." The French woman answered with a nod. "I never realized how much I call D.C. home until I went away for a while. I missed it a lot."

"Same old, same old. Working on my psychology dissertation, going to social events with friends. It has been quite _boring_ without you, Mickey." Bridget pouted. Jeanne let out a laugh and hasten to cover it up with a cough when Mickey gave her a look.

"I'm sorry work has been so busy for me, Bridget. Something has come up, so I'm not going to get a proper vacation for a while, but I promise I'll cash in some of my vacation days as soon as I can. I can't give you an estimate on when that may be, but it _will_ happen." Mickey placated Bridget before she went into full-out 'Guilt Trip' mode. He'd be stuck at the manor a lot longer than he intended to be if that happened.

"We can always do a bit of traveling in the mean time, Bridget." Jeanne suggested in an effort to get Bridget to focus on something else. "Take a road trip across the continental US. See all the horrendous tourist traps in each state we drive through."

"I don't know, Jeanne... Seeing that many middle aged men wearing socks with sandals would make me go certifiably crazy." Both young women burst into laughter at the mental picture, pulling an eye roll out of Mickey. He had to admit, though, that Jeanne provided the ultimate way to get them the hell out of D.C. without sending them away against their wills. Mickey filed the idea away for later and glanced at his watch.

"Girls, I should probably get going." He interrupted their laughter with a frown. Mickey had thought he had more than a few minutes to spare to come see the two of them before leaving, but he knew his watch was accurate. He needed to get going.

"Awww..." The pout returned to Bridget's face. "Why?"

"It's getting late and I have things I need to do early in the morning. Sleep _is_ a requirement, you know." Mickey risked another poke at Bridget's waist. She frowned again, but Mickey couldn't tell if it was because he was leaving or because of him poking her again.

"You're definitely going to try and be here Sunday?" Bridget confirmed.

"Yes. I can't guarantee that I can make it, but I'll put in the effort to." Mickey reminded the two of them of his busy schedule. Bridget moved to latch herself onto Mickey again as he stood up, not letting go until she felt good and ready to. Mickey dropped a kiss on the top of her head before letting her go, himself. He turned to hug Jeanne but she waved it off.

"Mickey, I'll walk with you to the front entrance. I wanted to ask your advice about something." Jeanne explained.

"Alright. Have a good night, Bridget. Don't cause Vivian too much trouble." Mickey gave Bridget a mischievous smile. She rolled her eyes and collapsed dramatically back onto her bed.

"Good night, Mickey. Now go, before I decide that now is a good time to kidnap you." Mickey snorted in amusement at Bridget's antics and headed for the door, opening it for Jeanne as they both left the room.

Jeanne remained silent as the two of them made their way down the hallway. Mickey was considering asking her why she _really_ wanted to leave Bridget's room as they arrived at the main stairwell, but Jeanne finally opened her mouth before he could.

"Mickey, I've been having some rather...well, Colin would describe them as damning thoughts." She began, making Mickey pause in his walking. Jeanne stopped along side him and allowed him to consider her words before continuing. "I've been considering contacting Tony again."

Mickey rose an eyebrow at Jeanne. Everyone in the Family knew about what happened with Tony DiNozzo, aka Tony DiNardo. Several members wanted to go after the man before the Don stepped in to stop them and prevent an incident with NCIS. No wonder Jeanne said Colin would consider her thoughts damning.

"What do you want me to say, Jeanne?" Mickey asked. Jeanne bit her lip, fidgeting slightly.

"Should I? Should I contact Tony? Possibly see him again? When I told you what he last said to me, you said it sounded like he was only telling me what I wanted to hear." Mickey nodded at Jeanne's summary of what he told her when she vented to him about Tony. "I have come to accept that he was doing his job, trying to get close to my father. In hindsight...well, he could have done a lot worse than what he actually did. I can see he made an effort to hold back as much as he could instead of immediately stringing me along."

"Jeanne..." Mickey started slowly, considering what she was saying to him. "Do you still love him?"

Jeanne immediately turned away, crossing her arms in a self hug at Mickey's direct question. Mickey could see the shine of tears forming in her eyes and knew he pretty much hit the nail on the head, even if she hadn't exactly considered that before. She was considering it now.

"Jeanne. Do you still love him?" Mickey repeated slowly. Jeanne inhaled sharply, letting out a slight gasping noise, and nodded jerkily.

"I think I do, Mickey." Mickey quickly closed the distance between himself and Jeanne, hugging her tightly. Now he fully understood why Jeanne was coming to him about this. They had known each other longer than they knew the Murphys and he was much more understanding than they would be. Mickey waited until Jeanne started to break the hug before pulling away. She hastily wiped away a few stray tears as she turned back to him. "Am I crazy to still love him, Mickey? After all the emotional hell I went through?"

"All's fair in love and war, remember?" Mickey joked lightly. "I don't think you're crazy. I think you fell in love with a man that's difficult to love because of his choice of employment. If he actually _was_ a college professor, I don't think we'd be having this conversation. You would have already contacted him by now."

"Point taken..." Jeanne admitted in a weak voice.

"Jeanne, if you feel like you can handle talking with him again then I say do it." Mickey was given an incredulous look, making him let out a heavy sigh. "I know you know a hell of a lot more about what I and the other men do, Jeanne, than you let on. You're a smart woman and you paid a lot more attention to your father growing up than the others realize. But despite everything I have done, I have always upheld one rule. Leave the innocent out of it. You are innocent in all of this and you deserve happiness if you can get it, even if it _is_ with a federal law enforcement officer who is actively trying to put the rest of us in prison. I don't know nor care what the others think, but I'm sure as hell ain't going to hold it against you."

"Really?" Jeanne asked in disbelief. She had braced herself, expecting Mickey to shoot the idea down as quickly as the others probably would have.

"Yes." Mickey confirmed, giving her a guiding push to get them to start walking down the stairs slowly. "I'm not going to let the possible consequences of my actions dictate how you should live your life. Admittedly, being able to look Tony in the face without him knowing I'm Mickey Murphy is a perk, but that's beside the point. You did not force me, Colin, or any of the others to do what we have done. You shouldn't be punished along with us."

By then the two of them had reached the bottom of the stairwell and were at the main entrance of the manor. Mickey checked his watch one last time and decided he could afford another minute or two to help Jeanne resolve this internal struggle she had put herself in.

"Considering how much drama you and he went through, think long and hard about the idea of speaking with him again, Jeanne. And if you decide it's something you ultimately want to do, do _not_ do it until you are absolutely sure you're ready to do it. Pops wanted a full background check done on Tony after your whole fiasco and after having had the chance to read it, it's pretty clear that you _both_ have a lot of baggage to bring to the proverbial table. Make sure you're willing to share and able to support yours before you go do anything." Mickey put a hand on one of Jeanne's shoulders in a sign of support.

"Alright. I'll think over all of that, long and hard, before I do anything." Jeanne decided, apparently pleased she went to Mickey for advice instead of asking someone else.

"And one more thing, Jeanne, before I go. This doesn't have anything to do with what we just discussed."

"Yes?"

"That suggestion you gave Bridget about doing some traveling. Start with day and weekend trips along the coast. Slowly work up to a country-wide road trip." Mickey implored. A slightly worried look appeared on Jeanne's face.

"Can you tell me why?"

"It's just...there's a reason why all us men have been so busy lately. Should something happen, your road trip idea is the perfect way to get you and Bridget the hell outta Dodge for a decent period of time on short notice. If you start with a day trip here, a weekend trip there, Bridget isn't going to bat an eyelash at you suddenly wanting to go on a full road trip for a few weeks." Jeanne absorbed everything Mickey was, and _wasn't_ , telling her.

"You really are working hard to keep her oblivious to everything, aren't you?" Jeanne pointed out with a look of understanding. "Bridget's in just as much danger, if not more, as me and yet I'm the one you're talking to about all this. Not her."

"We all have managed to keep her from finding anything out for this long. None of us are willing to be the one to change that." Mickey explained without actually explaining why they all put so much effort into their illusions with Bridget. Every other Murphy child, male or female, was in the know. Only Bridget remained out of the loop and a lot more effort was being done to keep it that way than had been done with the others. "Good night, Jeanne, and think about what I've said. About both topics."

"Good night." Jeanne gave Mickey a quick hug, nodding at his final instructions, before watching him open the front door and disappear into the night.


	6. Clandestine Meeting

Tim groaned when he woke up to a pounding on his apartment door. He sat up and frowned when he saw that the time was only 4:07 AM. Deciding to save his door before a neighbor decided to call the night manager and complain, Tim threw his blanket aside and stumbled his way through his bedroom and living room.

"Probie!" Tony's grinning face greeted Tim when he wrenched the door open without even looking through the peephole.

"Tony, it's four in the morning. I was in the middle of meeting that requirement called _sleep_. What the hell are you doing here?" Tim snapped. After everything that had happened the last handful days, taking on the joint operation with the FBI and everything that had been discovered since then, he wasn't in the mood to deal with the seemingly frivolous reason Tony was there for. The fact that Tony could even smile at four in the morning told Tim that the man had been up long enough to have at least three cups of coffee. Just enough time for him to think up something to get them _both_ in trouble.

"Well, most of the work the last few days has been on you and the geek team in the sub-basement. I figured you could use with a bit of a break." Tim gave Tony an incredulous look.

"And waking me up at four AM is your idea of giving me a break?!" Tim couldn't help but cry out in a tone of disbelief. He couldn't full out yell at the Italian because of the time, but he could definitely speak in a way to let the man know he was irritated. Tony wasn't _that_ thick.

"Doing some _field work_ is my idea of giving you a break. I have a few contacts who have earlier business hours than what is considered normal and I'm off to pick up some information from them soon. Wanna come?" Tony's grin grew a few inches. Tim's expression went blank as his brain, still a bit foggy from sleep, slowly registered what was being offered.

"Won't your contacts be wary about a new face showing up?" Tim asked, giving in to the inevitable and stepping aside to let Tony in. Tony walked in and headed straight to the kitchen. Tim followed with a roll of his eyes after closing his door with heavy click.

"Only if you show up alone. They trust me enough to not bat an eyelash if I bring in an unexpected partner." Tony fiddled around in different cabinets, confusing Tim for a few moments until Tim realized that Tony was taking out things for a quick breakfast. Tony was assuming that Tim was going to come along. Letting out a heavy sigh, Tim started moving so he could pick out his own food. He didn't trust Tony's diet choices.

"What information are they going to be giving you?" Tim asked in the middle of a yawn, pulling the cereal bowl out of Tony's hands and setting it on the counter so he could fill it.

"I asked them for a more...thorough background check on Colin Murphy than what the FBI provided." Tony supplied. Tim looked up in shock, his hand frozen mid-pour.

"Why would you ask for something so specific? We need to be focusing on the families as a whole, not their individual members."

"Yeah. Except we also need to identify Mickey Murphy." Tony shot back. He pulled one of the stools at the breakfast counter out slightly and straddled it, giving Tim a look as if everything should be obvious.

"So...to ID _Mickey_ , you want to know more about _Colin_. Tony, I think Gibbs has smacked you upside the head one too many times." Tim shook his head in disbelief, turning back to his cereal.

"No, no, no. You're not seeing it, McGee." Tony hurried up to explain himself. "I went over the files on the Murphy Family from the FBI with a fine toothed comb. All the gossip about Mickey clearly states that he and Colin are pretty close. Brotherly, even. It leads me to believe that they've known each other for quite some time. Probably since before Mickey took on the Murphy name as a pseudonym. A name in Colin's past _has_ to be Mickey's real one."

"Mickey's name began popping up while Colin would have been in college." Tim admitted, supplying a piece of information he noted while going over the files, himself. "That's a lot of names we're going to have to go through. College classmates, teachers, room mates, coworkers, the works."

"I know. I know. This is gonna be hell. But it's _something_ , which is better than nothing." Tony placated his partner. There was going to be a _lot_ of people to check out.

"After you and Ziva have gone through all your contacts you two get to go through everyone on that list." Tim declared without mercy. A horrified expression appeared on Tony's face at the thought of having to face Ziva when she finds out that she'd been volunteered for menial labor.

"Now wait just a second..." Tony began.

"No." Tim interrupted him, waving his spoon in Tony's direction. "Gibbs has pretty much made me lead of NCIS' part in the operation. I get to decide who does what. You asked your contacts for a profile on Colin Murphy without passing it by me so you get to follow through with it, call by vastly irritating phone call. Until I find something else for her to do, Ziva will be working with you. That's your punishment."

"You are a cruel and vindictive man, Timothy McGee." Tony asserted, his eyes narrowing in irritation.

"You woke me up at four in the morning without warning. Be happy I'm not sticking Gibbs with you, as well." Tim hissed before shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. Tony winced instinctively, almost as if he was already experiencing the head slaps he would receive in that situation.

"I'll just...go get your clothes so we can leave as soon as possible." Tony offered, slipping off the stool and heading towards Tim's room before he could get any more ideas. Tim let out a snort of amusement. Turning the tables on Tony was definitely entertaining.

* * *

Tim followed closely behind Tony as they entered the warehouse, a bit on edge. Tony _said_ they wouldn't object to his presence there but his safety wasn't exactly guaranteed. Tim looked around to see if there were any aspects of this building that would make it unique to others but saw nothing. It was literally a generic warehouse, one of many in the D.C. area.

"DiNozzo. I see you've brought a friend." Tim's attention snapped forward as a group of four men walked out of the manager's office into the main area where he and Tony were. Tony sped up slightly to greet the man that spoke with a hand shake, nodding towards the others.

"My partner has been saddled to a computer desk. Figured I'd kill two birds with one stone by bringing him. Getting him out of the office and perhaps make a few new friends." Tony replied cockily. Tim was surprised by Tony's attitude but made sure to keep it off his face. He didn't know how long Tony knew these men. They very well could be contacts from Tony's Baltimore days. Or earlier.

"Does he have a name?" Another man asked in a laugh, addressing Tim more than Tony. When Tony didn't answer right away, Tim figured he was expected to do so.

"Timothy McGee." The expected looks of disinterest, showing lack of recognition, appeared on all but one of their faces. The first man who spoke had an expression of mild surprise.

"McGee? Alameda High, class of '94?" All color drained from Tim's face as Tony looked to him in confusion, wondering how his contact knew when and where Tim had graduated high school. The man chuckled, shaking his head slightly. "Amy Curtis is my cousin. I hear about you at every family reunion, Timothy McGee."

Tim let out a groan, hanging his head as blood rushed back to his face to give it the pink tint of embarrassment. He remembered Amy Curtis and knew exactly what this man heard at every family reunion. It wasn't a story he wanted Tony finding out, but it looks like he was going to find out anyway.

"I have a feeling you know something about my partner that I don't, Darren." Tony stated, turning back to the man. Darren tilted his head in amusement, letting out a wicked grin.

"Oh, just that my uncle caught your partner here 'tutoring' my cousin in Anatomy when they should have been working on Calculus. According to my aunt, he ran out of the house like the devil was after him with my uncle close behind." Darren's acquaintances burst out into laughter, Tony barely hiding his own. There was a twinkle in his eye, telling Tim that an interrogation was in his future.

"Perhaps I should have stayed home..." Tim began, trying to save the last bit of his dignity.

"Oh, don't say that." Darren cut in before Tim could say anything else, still grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "DiNozzo is right. Being stuck to a computer sucks. And I don't have a problem calling someone with enough guts as you do a friend. You were the only one daring enough to fool around with my cousin while her father was still in the house, after all."

Tim remained silent at that. His own actions apparently vouched for him. It was a bit twisted but he would take what he could get.

"McGee here has a vested interest in that information I asked for. Manage to get it?" Tony stepped in, getting things back on track. The man who asked for Tim's name pulled out a flash drive from the inside pocket of his jacket, setting it on a nearby crate.

"Full background check of one Colin Murphy. Care to share why you're so interested in him?" Darren prodded. Tony smirked, shaking his head.

"You know I can't tell you details about ongoing investigations." Darren gave him an innocent expression.

"Had to ask. One of these times you might tell." Shaking his head, Tony walked over to the crate and picked up the flash drive before slipping it into his own pocket.

"What's this going to cost me?"

"There's two folders on that flash drive. One with the background check and one with some evidence." Tim rose an eyebrow at 'evidence', gaining Darren's notice. "There's someone new trying to break their way into our...business. They're causing more trouble than they're worth. We need them gone. Getting rid of our nuisance will be your way of paying off the debt of Murphy's background check."

"Not to mention us arresting them keeps your hands clean." Tim noted, earning a few chuckles from the unnamed men.

"Precisely. You'd be working either way, so we figured we'd be nice and not dump a murder on your hands."

"How considerate of you." Tim commented, feeling a bit braver.

"It kinda shuts the door on future favors from you guys. Believe me, it's us covering our own asses." Darren said in return.

"Same with us, which is why we won't be personally taking the guy down." Tony injected. "We'll pass the information along to someone who can. They can file it as an anonymous tip, leaving no trail back to any of us. In the mean time, McGee and I will make sure that Murphy's profile is put to good use."

"You'd better hurry. Word might get back to Murphy that you're asking around about him. One of our sources of information could be a bit more willing to blab than we'd like, but we unfortunately can't do anything about it at the moment." Darren warned Tim and Tony.

"We'll deal." Tony waved off the warning. "We better get going before we get a call to head into work. Catch you later."

"Yes. Later. McGee, DiNozzo can tell you how to get a hold of us. Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything. After all, friends help each other." Tim nodded in recognition of Darren's instructions before following after Tony, who had already started walking towards the exit.

They both remained silent until they were back in Tony's car. Tim was unsure of what to say at first. The entire experience of meeting Tony's contacts was a bit surreal.

"Forget the rest of my contacts. I'm starting on Colin Murphy today." Tony announced. "No telling how quick word will get back to him."

"Keep details about this close to the chest, Tony. Sacks will be pissed if details leak to any of the families." Tim said.

"This _isn't_ a leak. It's just a...small mishap. It can be salvaged. If the families think we're only looking into the Murphy Family then the others may make a mistake. Mistakes provide us a way in to take them down." Tony got a bit defensive, hitting the gas a tad hard as they got onto the main roadway away from the warehouse.

"Relax, Tony. You're right. This can be salvaged. The Irish have been quiet so you looking in on Colin may be ignored as SOP on our part. The primary concern of the operation is the French and Russian families, anyway." Tim placated his partner. "I'm just saying that Sacks will use anything to get you in trouble so we should keep this amongst ourselves. Ziva won't see an issue and Gibbs will see the opportunity this provides."

"You're right. Slacks would only use this as ammo. Keeping it inside Team Gibbs is our only option." Tony relented with a small groan.

"Look, let's just focus on the job at hand. Head back to my apartment so we can look over the contents of that flash drive on a computer not connected to NCIS."

"You don't honestly think they'd put a virus on it, do you?" Tony asked in a disbelieving tone.

"No, but we should separate the contents on the flash drive so the evidence we're passing along doesn't leave a trace on either of our work computers. Plausible deniability, should our computers ever be searched in the future." Tim explained.

"I'll just trust you know what you're talking about when it comes to our computers. To your apartment we go." Tony turned the steering wheel, changing course to go back to Tim's apartment.


	7. Sunday Brunch

Jeanne lounged back on the patio chair she was on, taking a long sip of the blackberry and mint lemonade Vivian had brought out for her. She had been thinking over what Mickey had said to her a few days previous, simultaneously having to avoid questions from Bridget. It wasn't that Jeanne didn't trust Bridget to keep quiet about her wanting to contact Tony again. It was just that if she spilled about Tony, Jeanne would inevitably spill about Mickey's request and it was crucial that she didn't do that.

"Jeanne, Patrick is nearly finished with lunch. Would you like to eat in the dining room, or out here on the patio?" Vivian interrupted Jeanne's train of thought.

"I'll come in and eat with the others." Jeanne slid off the patio chair into a fluid move to stand up. "What has Patrick made today?"

"He roasted up some chickens and made various side dishes to choose from. Even made a small batch of that cranberry jelly you like." Vivian fluttered around Jeanne, fixing the cushions on the patio chair as she answered Jeanne's question. "I hear you've decided to stay a bit longer. Don't want to go home yet?"

"I figured that I could do with an extended vacation. I was thinking about asking Bridget if she wanted to do a weekend in New York. You know, have a girl's weekend. It can be annoying having so many guys around."

"That sounds like a splendid idea! I'm sure Bridget would agree to that." Vivian smiled, leading the two of them back into the house. "As much as she adores all her older brothers, I think Bridget sometimes wishes she were an only child."

"Fredrick treats her as such." Jeanne snickered.

"True." Vivian admitted.

The two of them reached the main dining room and Vivian opened the door for Jeanne before heading off to check on things in the kitchen. Jeanne wandered in, immediately enveloped in the dull roar from the various conversations everyone was having. It was quite clear that most of the family had put in the effort to be at lunch today. A high pitched giggled grabbed Jeanne's attention, and as she turned towards the source she noticed that Mickey had managed to make it. He was between Colin and Bridget, leaning across the table to say something to Margaret, the second oldest Murphy child after Morgan. Letting out a frown, Jeanne made her way around the table to where he was sitting.

"Mickey Murphy, just what do you think you are doing here without greeting me?" She scolded him. He turned from his discussion with Margaret to give Jeanne a cheeky grin.

"I thought I was here for Sunday brunch. I guess I was mistaken. I'll leave." He began to stand up but was immediately dragged back down by Bridget tugging on his arm.

"Oh, no, you don't! You finally made time to come on a Sunday. You're staying." Bridget gave him a pout, making her siblings chuckle at her manipulation. Rolling her eyes, Jeanne hugged Mickey from behind and took the empty seat on the other side of Bridget.

"Hey, Bridget." The young woman turned her attention from Mickey to Jeanne. "I may be staying longer but I'm starting to feel crowded by all the guys. You want to do a girl's weekend somewhere? Maybe New York?"

Mickey gave Jeanne a look over Bridget's head as she made her suggestion. She pointedly ignored it, focusing on Bridget's answer.

"That's a great idea! We can check out the plays on Broadway and get some serious shopping done. When did you want to go?" Bridget nodded in enthusiasm.

"Does this coming weekend sound good? I'm not sure my patience with the boys will last longer than that, and Vivian won't appreciate having to hide bodies." Colin leaned forward to give Jeanne a pout of his own as his sisters burst into laughter.

"Hey, I resent that, Benoit."

"Then learn to behave better." Jeanne shot back.

"This weekend is perfect. I have an event for school coming up in a couple weeks. I can buy a dress for it in New York." Bridget managed to get out in between giggles. She turned to Mickey with a smile. "Expect tons of texts containing pictures. I'm gonna need a guy's opinion on my choices."

"Duly noted. I'll notify everyone else not to call or text me at all this coming weekend so my phone doesn't get overloaded." Bridget immediately smacked Mickey on the arm for his cheek, continuing the humorous atmosphere.

"Jeanne, darling." Penelope called for her attention to the far end of the table. "A package arrived for you earlier. I had Mark bring it up to your room."

"Really? Thanks. Did it say who it was from?" Jeanne wondered who could possibly know she was staying at the Murphy household, aside from a few friends and family members.

"Not that I remember, no. Just a return address that I didn't recognize."

"Ok. I'm sure I'll know once I open it." Penelope hummed in agreement.

"If it's a surprise package then it's most likely a gift. That's how I would view it, anyway." The older woman gave Jeanne a mischievous smile, making her husband roll his eyes.

"I will remember that when I open it, Penelope." Jeanne assured her with a smile. Turning to the empty plate in front of her, Jeanne began to fill it with some of the food closest to her before lifting the plate and reaching across Bridget to hand it to Mickey. "Could you please put some of the potato casserole on my plate, Mickey?"

"Sure, Jeanne." Mickey took the plate so he could scoop some of the requested casserole onto it without risking dropping globs all over the tablecloth. "So, Jeanne, now that we actually have time to talk..."

"Yes?" Jeanne thinned her eyes out at the too-innocent expression he put on his face.

"Dating anyone you haven't told us about?" He put on a pair of doe eyes as he handed her plate back to her, pointedly ignoring the others who had immediately turned their attention towards Jeanne when they heard his question.

"No. I'm not." She hissed with a glare. Jeanne wondered what the hell Mickey was doing, asking her something like that. He  _knew_  she was contemplating contacting Tony again.

"Oh." Mickey continued in an airy tone, shoving a small amount of mashed potatoes into his mouth. "Just wondering. It would only be fair for the mystery guy to get the 'Big Brother Talk' if you  _were_  dating somebody. Amy's current boyfriend, Levi, got it just the other day."

"Even if I was, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself in a relationship." Jeanne let out in an even tone. Now it was clear. Mickey was  _warning_  her of exactly what he was planning to do if she got back with Tony. Well, he'd get Colin to do it for him since he couldn't exactly let anyone know who he was and Colin would follow Mickey's instructions to the letter, but that was beside the point. Mickey intended to do to Tony what he hadn't been able to do last time.

"Just give in to it." Bridget interrupted before Mickey could reply. "I can't even bring in a male  _friend_  without the poor guy getting interrogated by everyone, from Daddy all the way down to Mark. Like the guys are going to let a  _boyfriend_  get away without being spoken to."

"We just need to judge whether or not the little twits deserve you." Colin stated as if that was a logical reason for the Murphy men to scare the crap out of any guy who walked through the front door.

"I don't care." Jeanne leaned forward to throw a stern look Colin's way. "I can handle myself."

"Jeanne, the last time you dated someone without bringing him in to meet the guys you ended up accusing him of murdering your father." Margaret spoke up. The air of the room immediately tensed as Jeanne and Mickey both froze. Colin and Morgan, who was across from Colin and next to Margaret, instantly started letting out scathing remarks on what they wished they could have done to a certain NCIS Special Agent had their father not stopped them. Bridget let out a deep frown, staring at her plate as if it held the meaning of life and would tell her if she just concentrated on it long enough.

"Both of you shut it." Mickey snapped at Colin and Morgan, stopping their tirade mid-word. Glaring at the two of them, Mickey then turned his focus across the table. "That is an unfair assumption and you damn well know it, Margaret. Agent DiNozzo didn't kill Rene Benoit. Even  _if_ Jeanne had introduced him to the rest of us, Rene still would have died and Jeanne still would have lashed out emotionally at DiNozzo."

"We could have discovered that he was using Jeanne long before she found out!" Margaret countered, defending her position.

"Yeah, because staying with Jeanne after Rene found him out was  _definitely_  part of his job description." Mickey hissed back.

"And just what are you implying?" Colin inserted before Mickey and his older sister could get into a screaming match in the middle of Sunday brunch. The rest of his family had fallen silent as their voices rose, both of his parents visibly torn over whether or not to step in and stop the argument.

"Things don't add up." Mickey curtly replied, turning to look at Colin face-to-face. "We know what happened from Jeanne's point of view. We know what happened from Rene's point of view. My contacts have told us what happened inside NCIS while it was all happening. If you pay attention to what everyone told us, the sequence of events are out of order. Rene found out who DiNozzo was  _before_  someone blew up DiNozzo's car. And the explosion, itself! Someone tried to kill  _DiNozzo_ and  _Jeanne_ , not Rene. Let's not forget NCIS' surprising leniency with Jeanne after she accused DiNozzo of killing her father, either! There is a shockingly large amount of events that focus on Jeanne, not her father, and every single time NCIS or someone in NCIS was pulling strings to keep her out of it."

Silence fell over the table as Mickey finally shared his thoughts on what happened between Jeanne and Tony DiNozzo. He had remained silent when it had happened, preferring to focus on Jeanne instead of the situation, but it was obvious to everyone that he was seeing something they weren't.

"Mickey..." Jeanne croaked, breaking the silence. "What are you getting at?"

Mickey turned to her with a sigh, his internal debate showing through his eyes. He had contacts who were able to get him loads more information than what the others were able to get. His extensive abilities with computers also helped, seeing as how he was more willing to hack into things than Colin was despite the both of them having gone to school for it.

"Not everything is what it seems to be. That's all I'm saying, Jeanne." Mickey finally said. "After hacking into NCIS' files, it became clear to me that Director Sheppard had a lot more to do with your father than Agent DiNozzo did. He was a pawn in Director Sheppard's plans. After going over his file while I still access to the NCIS mainframe, it wasn't hard for me to come to the conclusion that a man like DiNozzo doesn't say the phrase 'I love you' lightly."

Frowning, Jeanne swallowed hard as she thought over Mickey's words. It wasn't often that he admitted to hacking into something. Normally he only did it when he knew there was information to be found. And, obviously, he found it. He just wasn't sharing it. Nodding slightly, she returned to her food as silence returned to the table. Jeanne made a mental note to question Mickey later.


	8. Horrifying Discoveries

"Mickey certainly isn't Colin's buddy from work at the pizza place. The man died six years ago in a car accident." Tony spoke up absentmindedly.

"Colin's boss from the hardware store is definitely too old to do what Mickey has done." Ziva reported her own findings. The two of them, along with McGee, were going down the list of all of Colin Murphy's known associates from the time he graduated high school up to now. Ziva borderline begged McGee to help when he informed her of the results of Tony's actions and he was unable to deny her. McGee's silence at their updates, though, was out of place and forced both of them to look up from their computers.

"Tim?" Tony asked hesitantly. McGee was staring at his computer screen with a look of abject horror, his hands slightly shaking as they hovered over his keyboard. It was a look neither of them had seen on the man's face before and it was making them both uneasy. "What did you find?"

"I...I...I..." Tim stuttered. He all of a sudden shook his head violently before turning his full body away from his computer to face Tony, his whole body still shaking. "Did you know that I graduated from MIT with  _five_  Colin Murphy's? Every large class has that one name that seems to repeat a lot, be it a first, last, or full name. Colin Murphy was the repeat name for both my graduating classes at MIT."

His partners froze at McGee's sudden desire to share that bit of information. That he was sharing it now, of all times, did not bode well.

"What about it, McGee?" Ziva spoke up next.

"I was friends with one of them." Tim replied before either Ziva or Tony to ask another question. They seemed to realize that Tim's horror at the information he had discovered was about to lead into a full out rambling session. "He was in the dorm across from mine every single year. Our entire group of friends was like that, actually. Our group formed that first year after we moved into our dorms, which were all clustered together at the end of one of the hallways, and we all petitioned to keep dorm rooms near each other every year after that. Out of all my friends, though, I considered myself closest with Colin. He was the only one with a younger sister so he was the only one who was able to understand my train of logic part of the time. I've remained in contact with him, actually. We buy small birthday and Christmas gifts for each other, spoil each other's little sisters, regularly help each other with coding issues..."

"Tim, what are you trying to say?" Tony asked slowly and deliberately when the other man trailed off, a new look of intense horror appearing on his face. "Are you saying that your friend from MIT, Colin Murphy, is the very same Colin Murphy we're investigating?"

McGee turned his chair back to face his computer with a jerk, remaining silent as he started at the screen as if it had literally destroyed the world. Tony exchanged a look with Ziva when their partner didn't say anything. That explained Tim's reaction. While the world didn't actually end, Tim's world was just overturned.

"I have been completely blindsided." McGee whispered. Tony shot up out of his desk and walked over to Tim's when he heard that, glancing at the computer screen to see that Tim had been going through Colin Murphy's college records before turning his full attention to Tim.

"You will  _not_ be tearing yourself up over that, Tim." Tony insisted. "So you went to school with Colin Murphy. You're friends. That  _does not_  mean you have done anything wrong."

"Haven't done anything wrong?" Tim shrieked, turning back to Tony. Ziva jumped up from her seat to go join the two of them at Tim's desk, sensing that Tony was going to need a bit of help calming the Junior Agent. "Did you not just hear me? Colin and I  _regularly_ help each other with coding. What if I unknowingly helped him do something illegal?! I could be an accessory to treason, for all I know!"

"What?" All three of the NCIS agents turned to look at Sacks and Fornell in surprise at their sudden appearance. Sacks was the one who spoke up and was now walking towards them. "What are you going on about, McGee?"

"McGee has discovered that the Colin Murphy he went to school with and is friends with is the same Colin Murphy we are investigating." Ziva replied when Tim began stuttering over his syllables in his effort to answer.

"Yes, we knew that." Sacks said as if it should have been obvious.

"You  _knew_?!" McGee hissed, standing up. "You knew and you didn't say anything?!  _I_  didn't know!"

"McGee, we've been investigating the Murphy Family for quite some time. We've done extensive background checks on all the known members." Sacks started in a quiet tone, trying to placate his NCIS counterpart in the operation. "We knew you and Colin Murphy were friends at MIT and maintain a friendship. We even did a background check on you when we found that out. It quickly became obvious that you, like many others, were kept blind to the actions of the Murphy Family, and Fornell and I had your connection to the Family buried when it became clear you didn't know anything."

"Oh, you  _buried_  it." Tim shot back in a scathing tone. "To protect my career, no less, I'm sure."

"Actually, yes." Fornell spoke up. "You'd already proven yourself as an agent here at NCIS when we took over the investigation into the Murphy Family. There was no need to undo all your hard work just because you unknowingly became friends with a member of the Irish Mob.  _They_ kept you out of the loop, as well, despite having easy access to federal files in case you've forgotten."

"Think about it, McGee." Sack began again before Tim could reply to Fornell. "Colin has several siblings yet you have only met the two. Bridget and Morgan. Haven't you ever wondered about that?"

That made McGee pause. Sacks wasn't wrong. The only family members Colin introduced to his friends at MIT, not including his parents, were Bridget and Morgan. In hindsight, it was obvious why Colin only introduced those two siblings. Bridget was only ten at the time, so no worry about her blabbing about anything, and Morgan was twenty-five, clearly able to keep his mouth shut about certain things.

"I may have met Mickey Murphy." Tim stated, oddly calm after his panicked outburst.

"Which we can use to our advantage." Tony stepped in. No way was he going to let the FBI agents completely take over calming McGee down. "I mean, think about what I figured about Colin and Mickey's relationship. They're brotherly, aren't they? Kinda like you and me. Is there  _anyone_  you can think of from school that Colin was like that with."

"Well,  _me_." Tim said, turning to Tony. His irritation with Fornell and Sacks about keeping him in the dark about something like this would have to wait. "But my view is biased. Like I said, I considered myself closest with Colin out of all my friends at MIT. Colin very well could have acted brotherly with all of us. It's not an easy mannerism to get rid of. I, myself, catch myself acting like that with Ziva frequently. And as you know, when you're trying to keep a secret from people then you definitely don't do anything that could be considered out of the ordinary."

"Point taken. But what I said still remains true. If you are correct in your assumption that you have met Mickey Murphy then we simply have to compare your memories of Colin's other friends with what we know about Mickey."

"It will be easier than you think, McGee." Ziva said, taking over for Tony. "He will be someone like you, who is still in regular contact with Colin. We know Mickey Murphy is only known to a small group of people, the blood members of the Murphy Family and Jeanne Benoit, so he will have remained in contact with them."

Tim nodded, trying to remember the names of everyone he knew Colin was friends with during their time at MIT. The list of known associates basically included  _everyone_  he interacted with and would not be of much help.

"Jeanne." Tony said suddenly, making the others turn to him with a questioning look. He grabbed Tim's arm to emphasize what he was about to say. " _Jeanne_ , Tim. She knew Mickey Murphy long before anyone in the Murphy Family did. Try to remember if any of your friends spoke about traveling to France."

"A few of us were military brats, so it's plausible that one of them had stayed in France for a short period of time. I'll have to double check the records." No one name popped up in Tim's mind. He'd have to check them all. "I was the Navy Brat of the group. Two others were Army Brats. I can't quite remember if anyone in the group had a parent in the Marine Corp, but I know that four of the others had at least one parent that was in the Air Force."

"Seven of you?" Ziva's eyebrows rose up in amazement. Tim shrugged as if it were no big deal.

"Seven out of twenty is still less than half."

"There's twenty in your group of friends?!" Tony asked in surprise. He had expected no more than nine. That Tim was being nonchalant about it meant their aim of getting him to calm down was achieved, though, so he wasn't going to complain. Much.

"Trust me, Tony. When geeks congregate, they do so in large numbers. Or have you forgotten about the conventions I occasionally attend?"

"We will not get into that right now. You should be checking your friends' backgrounds."

"And  _you_  should be continuing to check the others on the list of known associates." Tim shot back. "We cannot rule them out just yet."

Tony winced as McGee gave him the 'McEyebrow', as he called it, knowing that was an order and not a suggestion. Tony was only lucky enough that Tim wasn't abusing the power, like he would have. Giving Ziva a look, Tony spun on his heel and returned to his desk. Ziva did the same, leaving McGee to speak with Fornell and Sacks.

"Do not think I'm about to let you get away with keeping me in the dark about something like this." McGee thinned his eyes out at the two of them. Anger grew in the pit of his stomach at their actions, but he made sure to keep it internalized. He'd take it out on a punching bag in the gym later. "But that is a discussion for later. I don't feel like getting into an argument right now. What are you two doing here?"

"One of the French families, the Durand's, have suddenly fallen silent. They're the least likely to go after the Benoit's in a power struggle, but it's still suspicious since they're friendly with the McCarthy Family. We were wondering if you've heard anything about  _them_." Sacks informed McGee.

"McCarthy's are still working like clockwork. They're continuing business as if the mess the French are threatening to create won't ever happen. We aren't finding anything on them that isn't already in the files you guys sent over."

"Figures..." Fornell muttered. Tim eyed him for a few seconds before pointing at the back elevator.

"Gibbs is down in Abby's lab." Sacks barely hide his look of amusement when his boss immediately headed towards the elevator in question before giving McGee a bemused look. "Our discussion will be moving to Cyber Crimes. Do you really want to listen to Fornell grumble the entire time about how we're losing the reality of solving a case by no longer fully depending on field work?"

"Not really, no." Sack shook his head slightly.

"Alright, then. Tony, Ziva, keep on the list of known associates. I'll work on backgrounds of my classmates when Sacks and I return from Cyber Crimes." Tim was barely finished speaking when he started heading to the back elevator, confident that Fornell had enough time to get to Abby's lab. Sacks followed closely behind.

"Expecting another update?"

"Not really, but it won't do any harm to check in ahead of time. Also going to be telling the techs I set on the McCarthy Family to look into the family's relationship with the Durand's. If they have little reason to go quiet, as you suspect, then we gotta focus on their primary ally." Sacks tilted his head in recognition of that logic.

"Can't argue that. I can call in any new information to my own techs back at the Hoover Building." Tim nodded at that, smirking slightly.

"See? Even when I panic, I can keep things running smoothly. Remember that the next time you're told to arrest one of my team mates." Tim couldn't resist the dig, chuckling when he saw Sacks' head dropping with a groan in the corner of his eye.

"Can we just focus on the operation at this point in time?" Sacks would deny vehemently later on that his tone was  _not_  a begging one, but at the moment he just didn't want to get into an insulting contest with the one person in NCIS he could get along with. If the FBI was going to be working with NCIS in the future, and knowing Fornell they would be, Sacks wanted at least one person he could retreat to so he didn't kill DiNozzo.

"Fine." Tim let his chuckle form into a proper laugh just as the elevator arrived at the sub-basement.


	9. Updates and Promises

Mickey sat at his usual place at the end of the table, quietly listening to the updates the others were making to Fredrick. Everyone's contacts were giving them contradictory reports and it was causing hell. No one knew which reports to trust and which contacts to throw out on their asses.

"Also, Colin, I'm hearing whispers that Special Agent Tony DiNozzo at NCIS requested a very thorough background on you." One of the many minor lieutenants that Mickey never paid attention to spoke up.

"I knew that already, Trevor." Colin sighed, slouching back in his chair. "Can't say that I give a damn. He's not going to find anything that the FBI don't already have on me."

"I heard the same." Another faceless man spoke up. "It's been mentioned that NCIS is going through you to discover Mickey's identity."

"They won't find anything." Colin repeated. He threw a glance in Mickey's direction, slightly frowning when Mickey didn't look up from his cold stare at the table top. "Mickey and I have scrubbed our backgrounds thoroughly."

"Double check." Fredrick ordered plainly. The sudden onslaught of misinformation was beginning to become overwhelming. He was beginning to get tired of it.

"What about the other thing that NCIS found out?" Trevor asked, finally causing Mickey to look up.

"And what is that?" Mickey asked. Mickey's sudden injection into the discussions had everyone turning to look at him, Trevor taking on a slightly horrified look. He wasn't a blood member of the Murphy Family, like most of the others in the room. He was only standing in for a superior that needed to maintain his cover at his 'legit' job by attending a charity event. This night was the first time Trevor had ever met Mickey and Trevor knew he'd never see the man again. He wasn't really supposed to know what Mickey looked like.

"They...they..." Trevor began to stutter, Mickey's reputation causing him to hesitate. "They found out that Special Agent Timothy McGee went to MIT with Colin. That they're still in contact with each other."

Mickey remained silent, turning his stoical gaze towards Colin.

"I'll deal with it." Was all Colin would say in response to Mickey's look. The declaration was a bit redundant, the two of them had already known about NCIS' discovery, but they needed to say something in front of all the others to show that they were going to handle it. Trevor just  _had_  to blabber about it. The man was just a plain, old fashioned idiot, though, so they'd leave him alone. "It's not going to be much of an issue, anyway. The FBI discovered that link a while ago and they didn't do anything about it."

"They'll still try to use it to their advantage." Mickey pointed out.

"Like I said. I'll deal with it." Colin threw Mickey a smirk. "What about  _your_  little project?"

"It is going about as well as I would expect it to." Mickey's thoughts immediately went back to his and Jeanne's discussion about DiNozzo. He needed to help her deal with that before even thinking about suggesting to her that she name her father's successor.

"Keep working on it." Fredrick said, running a hand over his face. "We're done here. Nothing is going to get done until we deal with the chaos our contacts are making."

Trevor was the first one to react to the dismissal, pointedly making sure he did  _not_  look back at Mickey as he left. Other minor lieutenants made their way out the door before only the actual Murphy men remained.

"You're seriously not worried about DiNozzo?" Scott, Colin's second oldest brother, broke the silence.

"Nope." Colin straightened his posture in his chair. "The man may be a wild card in comparison to his fellow agents but he's surprisingly predictable. He'll end up doing the very same things the FBI did."

"We should be more worried about the Durand's. We haven't heard a peep out of them for over a week." Mickey guided the discussion away from DiNozzo. There was no need to let the others worked up about him just yet.

"True." Fredrick confirmed. "The other families are expressing concern about the Durand's mysterious silence. Do we know what the Durand's did before they cut themselves off from everyone? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"No, Pops. Reports about them have been stating that business was going on as usual for them before they went quiet. Whatever their reason, it's something internal." Colin replied.

"I want you boys to try and find out. I'm not liking the situation we're being put in." Fredrick stood up and walked out, leaving his children to figure out how they were going to get what he wanted.

* * *

"I'm glad you and Bridget are heading to New York today." Jeanne looked up from her bag with a frown.

"Well, hello to you, too, Mickey." She muttered as she went back to her packing.

"I'm serious, Jeanne. Shit's about to go down. I can just feel it." Mickey settled himself on her bed, leaning against the headboard. "Someone is going to get hurt."

"Don't let anything happen to Tony." Jeanne turned her attention to Mickey again, her eyes begging him. "I...I've made the decision to reach out to him again when Bridget and I get back. I don't wanna return to find out he's dead."

"Jeanne, relax." Mickey was quick to placate her. "Nothing is going to happen to him. I'd be more worried about Colin doing something stupid. We're entering the calm before the storm. Colin is going to be more difficult to control than usual."

Jeanne acknowledged the statement with a nod, lowering her head once again. The two of them remained silent as Jeanne finished packing her weekend bag, tossing it in the direction of the bedroom door once she was done. Wringing her hands in worry, she joined Mickey on her bed.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Mickey threw an arm over Jeanne's shoulders with a wry smirk.

"There's going to be an altercation. Either between us and the Feds or us and one of the other families. My gut is telling me it's most likely gonna be the latter. Some people who are usually loud and obnoxious have gone quiet, making the rest of us go on high alert. The tension has to break some time."

"You don't seem overly worried." Jeanne commented with a frown.

"To tell you the truth, I'm not. Not about anyone getting killed, at any rate. I can handle one of the guys getting a short stay in the hospital. It's inevitable. But you and Bridget getting sent there? Not so much... Which brings me back to my original statement. I am glad you and Bridget are heading to New York today." Mickey pressed a kiss onto Jeanne's temple, squeezing his arm in a half hug. "Be sure to send me lots of pictures when you two get around to dress shopping."

"Mickey." Jeanne whacked his chest, glaring at the innocent expression he was giving her. "Bridget and I are not going shopping for your entertainment."

"I beg to differ." That earned Mickey a harder whack, making him lean forward slightly in pain as his lungs echoed in a loud thud. "Ok. Ok. Fine. You two are going shopping for no one but your pretty, little selves. Just stop hitting me."

"Baby." Jeanne rolled her eyes as Mickey rubbed his chest to make the stinging go away.

"I'll happily be a baby if it gets you to stop hitting me." He whined back.

"You'll let me know if anything does happen?" Jeanne chose to switch back to the more serious topic. It pulled a heavy sigh out of Mickey.

"Of course I will, Jeanne. I won't leave you in the dark." Mickey pressed another kiss to Jeanne's temple. He knew him coming in to check on her before she left was going to keep her on edge all weekend, but Mickey would rather Jeanne be like that than blindsided by a surprise phone call in the middle of the night telling her and Bridget to come home. Not to mention it had the added benefit of Jeanne being more understanding when he finally got around to approaching her about her father's successor.


	10. Visitation

Tony looked at his calendar longingly every time he had a pause in his work. Not because it was Monday. He, like everyone else, generally hated Mondays. No, he looked at his Page-a-Day calendar longingly because it was declaring that is was April 1st in bold text, almost mocking him because he  _knew_  he couldn't pull any pranks this year. Tim's suggestion from a couple weeks ago aside, there was just too much going on with the operation for him to take the time.

"For crying out loud, Tony." Tim hissed across the Bull Pen. "If I promise to let you out a bit early tonight, will it get that damn mopey look off your face?"

"But it's April Fool's Day, Tim!" Tony cried back, ignoring the snickers Ziva wasn't exactly hiding.

"I know that, Tony. I am painfully aware of this date every single year since the day I met you. But if you don't stop moping, I'm going to take my stapler and stick that damn calendar page to your forehead." Tony scooted his chair a little further away from Tim, giving the other man a wary look.

"You have been spending too much time with Ziva." He muttered, going back to his work. Tim and Ziva exchanged looks of satisfied amusement before turning back to their own work. The silence didn't last for long, though, as the elevator dinged a few minutes later.

Having the elevator in his general line of sight, Tony was the first one to look up when the new arrival made their way towards the desks. His jaw dropped slightly in shock when he recognized the person, freezing in his seat. Tim let out a sigh of annoyance, taking Tony's pause in typing as him moping again, and turned to snap at him when he noticed the new arrival as well. Ziva looked up just as the person arrived at the team's work area and barely restrained a double take.

"Miss Benoit." Tim stood up to greet Jeanne before Tony or Ziva could say anything, walking to the middle of the desk area. "This is an unexpected surprise."

"I know, Agent McGee. I know my father's... _group_  is being investigated and I know all the others are being investigated as well. Agent Kort's offer of protection made that perfectly clear." Jeanne stopped a few steps away from Tim, adjusting her purse strap over her shoulder before clutching it tightly. "That's not why I'm here, though."

"May I inquire as to why, then? The last time NCIS crossed paths with you, things didn't exactly end well." Jeanne winced slightly at the reminder of her accusations that Tony had killed her father, mirroring Tony's own wince.

"The second reason why I'm here is to play messenger." Jeanne pulled an envelope out of the outside pocket of her purse, handing it over to Tim. He held it delicately by the edges, raising an eyebrow in expectation for Jeanne to explain. "It's from Colin Murphy. He said he would have come to speak with you in person, but recent events are preventing him from doing so. He didn't explain to me what he meant by that."

"I have an idea..." Tim trailed off, lightly dropping the envelope on his desk. He'd have Abby open it for him down in the lab. "Your first reason?"

"Is personal." Jeanne's eyes darted to her right as she fidgeted slightly. Tim's own eyes went in that direction, connecting with Tony's confused ones. Tim went back and forth between Tony and Jeanne before making a decision.

"Tony, take your lunch break."

"Wait, what?" Tony asked. Tim barely held in a sigh before repeating himself.

"Take. Your. Lunch. Break. Don't come back for at least an hour. There isn't much for you to do at the moment, anyway."

"But I..." Tony began to say, pointing at his computer, but went silent at the look Tim sent his way. Replaying the dialogue of the last couple minutes in his head, Tony realized that Tim was telling him to take  _Jeanne_  out to lunch to get her out of the building. Nodding, Tony got up and began to collect his things. Tim turned back to Jeanne with a small smirk.

"Do try not to get Tony's car blown up this time. I don't think he could handle losing another Mustang." He quipped. Jeanne thinned her eyes out in irritation, turning away from Tim with a small huff.

"Tony, you don't have to..." Jeanne started. Tony held up a hand to get her to stop talking.

"We  _do_  have a long overdue conversation we need to have, Jeanne. We should take the chance while McGee is willing to let me leave work." Jeanne looked back and forth between Tony and Tim, as if to make sure Tony really  _did_  want to come with, before nodding in agreement. Tim and Ziva watched in silence as Tony guided Jeanne back to the elevator and waited for the elevator doors to close.

"Why did you send Tony out to lunch with her?" Ziva hissed.

"I have several reasons. So I no longer have to deal with his moping. To give everyone a Tony-free,  _silent_  hour. To appease her, since she came all this way to speak with him. To get her out of the Navy Yard so I can take that letter straight down to Abby. Pick one." Tim spat back. He didn't want to deal with Ziva's latent jealousy over Jeanne. She and Tony had an attraction for each other, yes, but it was no different than him and Abby. It wouldn't actually work. Tim restrained himself from snatching the envelope off his desk, carefully picking it up by the edges again, and headed straight to the rear elevator. He heard Ziva rush to follow him as her chair banged into her filing cabinet.

* * *

"So she  _hand delivered_  this?" Abby asked in a tone of disbelief as she slowly undid the seal of the envelope with an exact-o knife. Tim nodded from his place on the other side of the evidence table.

"Yes. It simply confirms what we already know. Jeanne Benoit is friends with the Murphy Family. I'm more concerned about what Colin has to say. And what could possibly be inside that envelope."

"Aren't you friends with him, McGee?" Gibbs asked with a slight tone of sarcasm.

"That's debatable at this point in time, Gibbs, but it's not Colin I'm doubting." Tim kept his eyes on the envelope as Abby put her knife down and carefully pulled the sheet of paper out of it. "Attacking from afar isn't his style..."

"You believe one of the others may do something." Ziva commented.

"Possibly. I'm not willing to risk it, though."

"Here you go..." Abby interrupted the discussion, flattening out the letter for Tim so he could read it. "No powder. No hairs. I'll dust it for prints after you're done reading it."

"Thank you, Abby." Tim slipped on a pair of latex gloves before picking the paper up. He cleared his throat before beginning to read it out loud. "Tim. I know that you have discovered about our unfortunate clashing career choices from a few blabbering contacts. I apologize, but it can't be helped. Look at the bright side. I valued your friendship in college far too much to even try to recruit you. Using my own background history to try and identify Mickey was a clever idea. I'll grant Agent DiNozzo that. But I implore you to stop going that route. While Mickey and I are finding the situation quite humorous, because we know you won't succeed, people outside my family may not be so entertained. Not to say they aren't also interested in finding out who Mickey really is. Many people are, not just you Feds. But they'll be more focused on the fact that two federal agents are the ones doing the digging."

"I know about the CIA's offer to Jeanne Benoit to give her protection against all this shit the French Families are pulling, including her father's own group, but do not think her denial of federal protection is going to keep her safe. My family can only do so much and we definitely don't know who may use Jeanne's previous relationship with DiNozzo against her, nor who may try to use her to identify Mickey. Yes, I know about Agent Kort telling you about that as well. But that is beside the point. What I'm getting at here is that Jeanne Benoit is in an unfortunate position and she doesn't realize just how bad it is. Please do not use her friendship with me and my family against her, should she ultimately request that protection. You're too good a man, Tim, to sink that low. Even if it does have the potential of preventing you from doing part of your job. Happy hunting. Colin."

Tim set the letter down carefully as silence fell over the lab. There was an unspoken message between Abby, Gibbs, and Ziva that they had expected Colin to mock Tim in the letter, pulling him into a game of cat and mouse because of his discovery. They didn't expect Colin to warn Tim about the danger he was getting himself in to or reveal that he knew about certain details of their operation.

"I need to go see Tony and Jeanne." Tim suddenly said, standing up and ripping the latex gloves off at the same time.

"What do you mean?" Abby asked in a worried tone.

"You heard me read the letter, Abby. Colin has no reason to lie about stuff like that. A criminal he may be, but he wouldn't endanger an innocent like Jeanne. Keep on going over the evidence the FBI have given us in regards to the Irish Families. Ziva, move on to the McCarthy's for the time being. Identifying Mickey Murphy needs to be put on a back burner. Gibbs, just...keep doing what you and Fornell have been doing." Tim rattled off orders, hesitating once he got to Gibbs. He didn't actually  _know_  what Gibbs had been doing. "I'm going to go check on Tony and Jeanne, and bring them back here if needed."

Gibbs let out an amused smirk as Tim went over everyone's duties, a bit proud that the younger man was handling his leadership position was well as he was. One of the primary reasons why Gibbs gave him the job in the first place was because they needed to work with other agencies and Tim had the best rapport with said agencies out of everyone on the team. It may be a lot to expect out of the young man, considering the fact that Tim had so much work to do with Cyber Crimes, but Vance had been pushing him to give Tim more chances at administrative duties. This was the best he could do, short of booting Tony off the team and giving Tim the Senior Field Agent position.

"Got it." Ziva nodded, showing she understood the logic behind Tim's orders. The FBI  _was_ , after all, hoping NCIS could find something where they could not.

"Will do. On it, Agent McGee, sir." Abby said with her usual sense of humor.

Happy that everyone was going to do as they were told, Tim quickly headed out of the lab.

* * *

Tim, predictably, found Tony and Jeanne at an Italian restaurant not far from the Navy Yard. He genuinely wondered which of them suggested the place, but pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Right now, he needed to focus on their safety.

"You told me an  _hour_ , McGee! It's been thirty minutes." Tony protested as Tim entered the small restaurant and approached their table. Tim ignored the frown Jeanne was giving him, feeling fully justified in his interruption. He was glad to see that they weren't at each others throats. They actually seemed a bit comfortable.

"I know, Tony, but something that Colin said in that letter gave me reason to come and check on you guys. Jeanne, do you know if  _anyone_ , other than Colin, knows about you coming to the Yard today?" Tim placated Tony before turning to question Jeanne.

"I only told Colin." Jeanne answered, confused. Tony froze at the question. It had to be a  _very_  important reason if Tim couldn't ask that via text or phone call.

"He's the only one that knows. Are you  _sure_?"

"Yes! I can't exactly say Colin was happy that I made plans to come today since I only got back from New York this morning, but he didn't argue against it. He promised to help me sneak out of the Manor if I agreed to bring that letter I gave you. Some of his siblings  _definitely_  would have protested. Especially Morgan." Jeanne replied in irritation. Tim's insistence that she be absolutely sure was vexing and worrisome.

"McGee, what did the letter say?" Tony inquired to cut the tension growing between the two people in front of him.

"Confirmation of a few things we already know. That Colin felt compelled to warn me about them has me worried." Tim went on without giving any details. They were, after all, in public. "He also mentioned a few things we have considered but set off to the side for other things. I know I told you an hour, Tony, but I'd be more comfortable with the two of you coming back to the Yard."

"Tim..." Tony started.

He was interrupted by the front windows of the restaurant suddenly shattering, a hailstorm of bullets flying through and embedding themselves into the back wall. Patrons and staff, alike, let out horrifying screams at the sudden attack on the restaurant as they ducked and dove for cover. Tony reached across the table to grab Jeanne when she hesitated in acting, pulling her to the floor and covering her with himself as they were showered with bits of glass and wood from different directions. Tim barely covered his face in time to stop glass from getting into his eyes, crouching down to make himself a smaller target to the oncoming bullets.

When glass finally stopped flying, Tim uncovered his face to take in the situation around him. Whoever was outside was still shooting into the restaurant, but it appeared that they didn't have a definite target. Tim pulled Tony and Jeanne's table towards him to hide the two of them from anyone looking in the windows before making his way to the outside wall, staying crouched down and out of the shooters' aims. Tim rose up against a section of wall that was between two of the windows, pulling out his cell phone as he took quick glances on both sides.

"Boss! Greco's! Now!" Tim shouted over the gunshots, the background noise providing all the explanation Gibbs would need before Tim hung up.

"McGee!" Tony yelled from his place at the other side of the room. "How many?!"

"I counted at least six!" Tim pulled out his gun and flicked off the safety. "Stay down!"

A pause in the shooting on his right side provided Tim the chance to peak around the wall again and he took a shot at one of the men before taking cover again, hearing the satisfying sound of a man screaming in pain as Tim's bullet made itself at home in the man's shoulder. Tim's deadly game of Whack-a-Mole with him and bullets went on as he continued to take chances at shooting back, hoping to stall long enough for backup to arrive.

He managed to shoot three of the ultimate eight men when the sweet sound of sirens met his ears and he let out a sigh of relief as he slid down to the floor, back pressed against the wall. The sirens apparently reached the shooters' ears as well, because they stopped all at once and the air was soon filled with moans of pain, car doors slamming, and tires squealing. It was moments later when another car screeched to a stop and two more car doors slammed.

"McGee! DiNozzo!" Gibbs' yells had Tim scrambling to get back up, stepping in front of one of the windows to reveal himself.

"Boss..." Tim called Gibbs and Ziva in his direction. The patrons of the restaurant slowly began to stand up from their various hiding places when they realized that there wasn't going to be any more shooting.

"What happened?" Gibbs hissed in anger when he and Ziva reached the window.

"The few looks I managed to get of the shooters were pretty lacking. All I got for sure was that there was eight of them. If I had to guess, they were Russian." Tony and Jeanne approached as Tim summarized the situation, Jeanne shaking like a dying leaf trying to hang on to its tree in a wind storm. Tony pulled her close in a hug as he gave Tim a look of understanding.

"You weren't kidding about Murphy's warnings." Tony muttered.

"What did they want?!" Jeanne cried out, tears of fear brimming her eyes.

"Good question." Ziva commented, looking back and forth between her team mates.

"I'm calling Fornell. Like  _hell_  there wasn't word about this out there." Gibbs snapped, walking away from the group as he pulled out his cell phone.

"Tony...?" Jeanne's voice warbled as she went closer to the brink of breaking down, causing Tony to hug her even tighter.

"Jeanne, everything is going to be ok. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"McCarthy's?" Tim turned his attention to Ziva, putting his focus on their job instead of the scene next to him.

"I asked Abby to set up a few searches for me after you left the Yard. No results when Gibbs and I left, but that is to be expected. They have no had much time to look." A different siren sound signaled the arrival of multiple ambulances, the police officers who arrived with Gibbs and Ziva going from patron to patron to see what the injuries were like.

"Understandable. Find the highest ranking officer and make it clear that NCIS will be taking control of the scene. I have my own call to make." Tim carefully stepped over the jagged frame of the window to put himself outside the building with Ziva.

"To who?" Ziva asked in curiosity. Them taking control was a given, so she didn't question it.

"Colin Murphy." Tim gave her a look of pseudo dread before walking off in a different direction from Gibbs.


	11. Phone Tag

Colin hung up in irritation. Father was going to kill him. Someone, probably the Russians, nearly killed Jeanne. Yes, his father was going to kill him. One, for letting her go out alone in the first place. Two, because they should have  _known_  that the Russians were planning something. And three, because Colin had known Jeanne wanted to go to NCIS to reconnect with DiNozzo. She didn't actually tell him she was going to the Navy Yard or planning to see DiNozzo when he talked her into delivering that letter for him, but Colin wasn't an idiot. Mickey never stood up for that man when he and Morgan got to ranting, yet Mickey did just that during the Sunday brunch he attended recently. Only reason why Mickey would do that was if Jeanne was involved.

Colin jumped when his phone started ringing, answering it without looking at the caller ID.

"Colin Murphy..." He hissed into the phone.

" _Colin, it's Mickey. What the hell were you thinking, letting Jeanne go out alone?!_ " Scratch that thought. Colin's father wasn't going to kill him. Mickey was.

"I wasn't exactly in a position to stop her from going, Mickey. Least I could do was cover for her so the others didn't cause a ruckus because of her desire to see DiNozzo." Colin replied. There was silence on the other end of the line. "Yes, Mickey. I know that Jeanne is reaching out to DiNozzo. She didn't say anything to me about it but it was written all over her face when she left."

" _Well, she's alive and unharmed. That alone is probably what will save your ass when Pops finds out. DiNozzo is not going to let her out of his sight for a while, so expect her to be holed up at the Navy Yard for the moment."_  Mickey continued without making a comment about Colin knowing Jeanne's intentions. He didn't really need to. That Colin wasn't swearing at him about it said it all. " _My main concern about all this is that someone ordered a tail on Jeanne and we didn't know about it. From the looks of things, everything is going to hell in a_ _hand basket at both the Navy Yard and the Hoover Building. If we don't find out who did this before they do, we'll lose our advantage over the situation._ "

"I'll get Scott on it before I go speak with Pops. He'll get things done the quickest."

" _Good. Now, I gotta go. I didn't have much time to make a phone call. Just long enough to get your reasoning for allowing this chaos to happen and figure out what you were going to do about it. Make sure you keep the table between you and Pops when you tell him."_  Mickey chuckled before hanging up, preventing Colin from retorting back. Ok, so Mickey wasn't going to kill him. That was a godsend. Back to worrying about his father.

* * *

"Bridget?" The red head looked up from the book she was reading, curled up in a wok chair in the manor library.

"Yes, Colin?" Bridget smiled at her favorite sibling. It wasn't often they crossed paths in the middle of the day anymore. Shoving her bookmark into the spine of the book to save her place, she closed it with a snap and set it on the table next to her as she stood up to walk to him.

"I...uh..." Colin fidgeted in his spot, hesitant to leave the doorway. His unusual behavior made Bridget stop mid-stride and give him elevator eyes. Colin was the cockiest of the Murphy children, which was saying something since most of her siblings were like that, so his unwillingness to go further than saying her name to grab her attention was making Bridget worry.

"Colin?" Bridget repeated his name. Something was wrong. She could tell. There were very few things that could have happened that would make Colin be the one to tell her and she didn't like any of her options.

"There was a shooting at the Italian restaurant Greco's earlier today." Colin got out, his eyes focusing on her anxiously.

"I know that already. It's all over the local news." Bridget relaxed slightly. It couldn't be too bad if Colin was telling her something she already knew about.

"Jeanne was there."

"What?!" Bridget shrieked, looking at her brother with abject horror. Colin let out a wince, not entirely comfortable in the position he had been 'volunteered' for. "Dear, god, is she ok?! Is she alive?!"

"Yes, yes, yes..." Colin immediately began to ramble as he finally stepped out of the doorway and towards his sister. "Jeanne is perfectly fine. She had gone to visit DiNozzo, who was with her, and he kept her safe."

"She went to visit DiNozzo?!" Bridget shrieked even louder. Colin briefly thought that his baby sister could put a banshee to shame and mentally growled at the amusement the rest of their siblings and their father were probably having at his expense. Surely they could hear the young woman screaming at him all throughout the manor.

"Yes. Jeanne went to see him. I came to tell you that she called and that we're probably not going to see her for a couple days because NCIS is going to want to keep her in protective custody until they find out why the restaurant was shot up."

"Oh,  _protective custody_." Bridget drawled out with every ounce of sarcasm she was capable of procuring. "Because she's in such danger staying here at the manor."

"Pops isn't going to try and force her to come back!" Colin argued. "He says it's best to play nice with NCIS at the moment since Jeanne  _had_  gone there willingly. He's suggesting that perhaps you should pack a weekend bag for her and deliver it to the Navy Yard. I would be going with you, of course."

Bridget let out a scream, spinning on her heel to begin pacing back and forth. She was beyond angry. She wasn't as out-of-the-loop as the rest of her family thought she was. Bridget knew that the 'family business' wasn't exactly legal. She knew that the constant meetings her father held were with people she probably wouldn't want to be caught in a dark alley with. Like Jeanne, Bridget was smart enough to see what was right in front of her without knowing the details.

"Where's Mickey?" Bridget hissed at Colin, not pausing in her pacing. If there was anyone who was willing to explain  _exactly_  what was going on after being confronted, it was him. Mickey never kept her in the dark about anything after she directly asked him about it. Had been like that since she first met him back during his and Colin's college years.

"He's at work." Colin reported with some confusion.

"I want to know what he has to say about this...this...utter bullshit!" Bridget stopped mid-stride again to yell that final word in Colin's direction. A look passed through Colin's eyes after her statement registered in his brain. It was a look that most of her siblings gave her whenever she said something concerning Mickey, and it drove her  _crazy_  because she could never figure out what it meant.

"I could call him, Bridget, but I doubt he would have long to talk."

"Call." Bridget nearly growled. Colin was quick to pull his phone out and hit his first speed dial. He didn't even wait to see if Mickey was even going to pick up before handing it over.

" _Yes?_ " Mickey's voice came over the line. Apparently he had looked at his caller ID, because he didn't ask who it was.

"Mickey? What's going on? Colin is telling me Jeanne isn't going to be back home for a few days because of her being at Greco's with DiNozzo when the shooting happened." There was some muffled sounds coming from the other line, telling Bridget that Mickey was making excuses to a few nearby coworkers and walking away to find a secluded spot. She waited patiently until his voice reappeared.

" _NCIS is keeping Jeanne in protective custody until they can identify the people who shot up the restaurant, Bridget._ "

"But  _why_? Wouldn't she be safer back here at the manor?"

" _Probably. It would be a bad idea to argue that point at the moment, though. Jeanne went to NCIS to make amends with DiNozzo and if that man is anything he's protective. He's not going to let Jeanne leave until he knows she's safe. She's got her wish, as well, and now has the next few days to play nice with him._ "

"Jeanne still loves him, doesn't she?" Bridget asked in a quiet voice. She felt a bit hurt that Jeanne didn't share the details with her, but she could understand why Jeanne went to Mickey. DiNozzo wasn't exactly well liked in the Murphy household.

" _Yes. Yes, she does._ " Mickey paused briefly. " _I am not going to worry about Jeanne being at NCIS. Just pack a weekend bag for her and deliver it to the Navy Yard._ "

"Already planning on that. Colin is going to be coming with me." That prompted another pause on the other end of the line.

" _You try and make sure Colin doesn't do anything that will get him arrested, Bridget._ _Putting him face-to-face with DiNozzo at this point in time is risky. He didn't sound too angry about Jeanne's choice when I called him earlier but that doesn't mean he won't deck the man if given the chance._ "

"Don't worry. I will." Bridget assured Mickey. The man rarely asked anything of her. Doing as he asked and trying to keep her brother in line was the least she could do.

" _Alright. I gotta go back to work now, Bridget. You going to be ok being left alone with your idiot of a brother?_ " The joke pulled a giggled out of Bridget, as Mickey had intended.

"I'll be fine. Talk to you later."

" _Talk to you later, Bridget._ " Bridget could nearly see the grin that Mickey most likely had on his face at that moment as he hung up. His tone of voice told her he was smiling. Smiling as well, Bridget gave the cellphone back to her brother.

"Front foyer. Twenty minutes." Bridget ordered, letting Colin know how long he had before she was done packing Jeanne's bag and ready to go.


	12. Confrontations

Tim leaned forward on his elbows as he rubbed his face in exhaustion. It was moments like this where he didn't envy Gibbs' job. The attack at Greco's was causing utter chaos and he didn't know what he should give priority to. Teams from both NCIS and the FBI were digging out all the bullets from the walls of the restaurant, all work on the McCarthy's had been put on hold to work with the FBI to figure out if the Russians really were the ones who instigated the attack, Jeanne Benoit was currently being held in the building for her safety and needed to be interviewed, and the media was clogging up most of the phones lines to get a statement since the FBI agents at the scene were more than happy to inform them that NCIS was at the helm.

"Need help?" Tim's hands dropped from his face as he looked up at Gibbs as if the man was the second coming of Christ.

"Dear, god,  _yes_. I don't know where to start. There's just so many things to address and they're all screaming for attention." Gibbs let out a slightly amused look and pulled his own chair over to the side of Tim's.

"Ok, what needs to be covered?"

"Ballistics from the attack, reaching out to all known informants on the Russians, Jeanne Benoit's interview, and holding back the media." Tim listed off. He glared at his computer as it beeped, declaring that he had yet another email demanding attention.

"Can anything  _wait_?" Gibbs asked, getting Tim's focus back on their discussion. He had the look that the Gibblets had titled his 'teacher' look since it only came out when he was patient enough to walk one of them through a lesson step-by-step instead of letting them figure it out on their own.

"The media could probably wait." Tim started. "If they weren't clogging up the phone lines and preventing communication with agents out in the field, I wouldn't be giving them a second glance at the moment."

"True. They're holding things back. What about the other three things? What is going on with them?"

"Reports about the Russians are making their way through the phone lines, but I'm also getting several emails asking for specific information to look for. A general search isn't giving much."

"Ok." Gibbs nodded in acknowledgment. "Searching for information on the Russians would be made easier if the flow of communication with our agents and informants was made smoother. What else?"

"The teams are still digging bullets from the walls. Both Abby's lab and the FBI's are beginning to fill with, not only the bullets that have already been dug out, but evidence from the rest of the scene." Tim rubbed a hand across his face again, mentally thanking whatever God that may exist that Gibbs was in a patient mood.

"So it may be a while until reports on all that start coming in. But, again, it may take a while since the phone lines are being clogged."

"Yes." Tim nodded in confirmation.

"What about Jeanne Benoit?"

"She's currently waiting to be interviewed. Tony is with her, but is under strict orders to simply help calm her down and only maintain small talk."

"You've summarized everything. Now what does it all tell you?" Gibbs prodded. He wasn't going to give a straight answer unless McGee was really becoming so exhausted that he couldn't think straight. Tim took a few moments to think over everything he just summarized for Gibbs and realized that the simplicity of the explanations made things somewhat obvious.

"Go interview Jeanne, send out a blanket statement to keep the media occupied until a detailed one can be made, then turn my focus on the evidence and whatever the informants are able to dig up." Gibbs let out another amused smirk at Tim's look of realization and stood up, returning his chair to his desk before heading off to do what he originally intended. Tim didn't bother to say thank you, knowing Gibbs wasn't expecting one, and turned his attention to his computer. Just a moment to check who his newest email was from and then he'd go speak with Jeanne Benoit.

"I'm telling you, Tony, her arrival is ill timed." Tim groaned, knowing Tony and Ziva's own arrival meant he would have to play mediator right away.

"And I'm telling you that she's most likely being targeted." Tony snapped back as he and Ziva reached the middle of the Bull Pen.

"Is Jeanne calmed down?" Tim asked befor Ziva could form a reply.

"Enough that I'm comfortable leaving her with the guards." Tony answered, turning to Tim as he did. "Any updates from ballistics or our people out in the field?"

"Nope. And we're not really going to get any just yet. The lines are still being swamped by the media demanding a statement. I was going to draft up a blanket statement after interviewing Jeanne. Is it safe for me to assume that you want her remaining here for a couple days instead of going to the intended safe house?" Tony threw Tim a look for the question, since the answer should be obvious, pulling a snort out of Tim. "I'll arrange for it. She made a call before I sent you down to calm her. A weekend bag should be delivered for her soon."

"You are trusting the Murphy's to pack a bag for her?" Ziva asked incredulously.

"I never said that." Tim defended himself in a deliberate tone, a somewhat mischievous look appearing on his face. Tony and Ziva exchanged confused looks when Tim didn't elaborate further, nearly missing Tim standing up at the ding of the front elevator. The two of them turned their attention to Tim's seemingly expected visitor. Their jaws dropped when they recognized Colin Murphy, who was slightly bent over in a hissed argument with the short, red-haired young woman walking next to him. The agent escorting them threw Tim a slightly panicked look, apparently recognizing Colin as well, but remained silent when Tim didn't acknowledge him.

"Tim!" The woman yelled in excitement, shoving the bag she was carrying towards Colin before darting forward and pulling Tim into a hug. Tony and Ziva remained frozen in shock, not knowing how to react, as Tim let out a chuckle and hugged the young woman back before she pulled away. "It's so awesome seeing where you work!"

"Hello, Bridget." Tim smiled as he filled in the missing blank that had been in the others' minds. "I hope you have been doing well. Sarah recently asked about you, but I was unable to answer."

"School, school, and some more school. Life has been relatively boring recently." Bridget rattled off at a high speed that put Abby to shame. "Anyway, I'm here with Jeanne's bag! I saw what happened to Greco's on the news. Absolutely terrible! Please tell me no one got hurt."

"No one important got hurt." Tim replied, throwing an angry look at Colin over Bridget's head. Colin stood at the end of the Bull Pen awkwardly, transferring his weight from one foot to the other as he kept the bag in question the way it had been shoved at him, and refused to make eye contact with anyone besides Tim. "I'm not surprised that Jeanne called you to pack her bag for her. Did you pack enough for a few days?"

"Of course!" Bridget turned with an outstretched hand to grab at the bag, obviously having expected Colin to follow her into the middle of the Bull Pen. "Colin, stop being a ninny and come over here! It's only Tim. He's not diseased!"

Colin glared at his baby sister but grudgingly stepped forward, shoving the bag back at her. The two Murphy siblings maintained glares at each other for a few moments before Bridget let out a huff and turned back around towards Tim.

"Here it is! Clothes, toiletries, the book she's been reading, and a couple other items that she bought on our trip to New York this past weekend." Tim took the offered bag by its strap, setting it down by the filing cabinets between his and Tony's desks.

"That should cover everything she may need. Right, Colin?" Tim turned his expression hard again as he pulled Colin into the conversation, earning a glare of his own.

"Yes, it should." Colin answered in a tense tone. Bridget pointedly ignored the looks her brother and Tim were throwing at each other, instead turning to smile at both Tony and Ziva.

"You two must be Tim's coworkers! Agent DiNozzo and Agent David. It's amazing finally being able to meet you two! Tommy and Lisa are my favorite fictional couple." Tim's eyes slammed shut in a silent groan as Colin's glare was joined by one from both Tony and Ziva. He waited a few seconds before opening his eyes again, aiming to ignore his partners as he addressed Colin.

"You know, Colin, you have a lot of nerve coming with Bridget. I only got your letter this morning. I got the feeling from it that you and I wouldn't be seeing each other any time soon."

"To quote myself, it couldn't be helped. My father didn't want Bridget coming here on her own and I was the only one available who was willing to play nice with DiNozzo." Colin growled back.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Tim rose an eyebrow. His eyes darted towards the elevator for a second when Gibbs, Fornell, and Sacks walked out of it, but he returned his focus back towards Colin. Now wasn't the time to panic.

"After everything that happened the last time Jeanne crossed paths with NCIS, do you honestly believe there isn't a single member of my family who doesn't want to kick his ass? There isn't. And believe me, I'd like nothing more than to smash his face into his desk right now. But I promised my father I'd play nice so Bridget wouldn't be returning home alone."

"Riiiiight..." Tim drawled out.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Fornell snapped, causing Colin to go stiff.

"He and his sister, Bridget, were just dropping off a bag for Jeanne Benoit." Tim replied. "They were just leaving."

"Can't believe you're truly arrogant enough to walk into the middle of a federal law enforcement agency, Murphy." Sacks hissed. Colin made to turn and say something back, but Tim stepped around Bridget and grabbed him by the arm to interrupt.

"Colin and his sister were just leaving." Tim repeated in a stern tone, giving Sacks a hard look. "We're too busy dealing with what happened at Greco's for you to be causing a scene, Sacks."

"Why are you..." Fornell began speaking, but went silent when Tim turned the hard look towards him. It was quite clear that Tim wasn't in the mood to deal with a confrontation between them and Colin.

"Bridget, Colin, thank you for delivering Miss Benoit's bag. I'll make sure she gets it." Tim let go of Colin's arm and stepped away. "I'm sure Agent Lowell will be more than happy to escort the two of you back to the main entrance."

"No problem! It was nice seeing you again. Tell Sarah I said hi." Bridget smiled, hugging Tim once again before walking to stand near Agent Lowell. Colin remained stiff, throwing Tim a cold look before joining his sister. Everyone remained silent as Agent Lowell quickly led Colin and Bridget back to the elevator to an effort to get them out of there as quickly as possible. The silence ended, though, as soon as the elevator doors closed.

"What the hell is going on?!" Fornell exploded, turning on Tim.

"I allowed Jeanne Benoit to call for a weekend bag. They were here to deliver it." Tim explained calmly.

"You're going to trust them that much? And why did you let Colin Murphy simply  _walk_  out of here like that?!" Sacks injected.

"I'll be having it looked over while I interview Miss Benoit but she  _will_  be getting it. As for letting Colin just walked out of here, we have no reason to hold him. He knew that coming in. That is why I insisted that they leave before you caused a scene, Sacks." Tim retorted. "Now why are you here?"

"To get updates."

"Too bad. I don't have anything for you. You'll just have to wait. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an interview to do and a statement to draft up for the media." Tim snatched up the bag in irritation as he turned away from the group, not giving Sacks or Fornell the chance to argue as he walked away. Tony and Ziva would explain what little happened for the others arrived.


	13. Interviews

Keating rubbed his hands over his face, staring at his computer screen. He was  _sure_  that the information he had found would lead to finding out who Mickey Murphy was. It was all but guaranteed. Keating was a bit proud of himself for coming up with the idea, as well. Instead of looking for a name, he looked through Colin Murphy's records to see if a name was  _missing_. Identifying something missing that should be there was a trick he learned during his short stay on Gibbs' team and it was certainly working at the moment.

A loud bang had everyone in Cyber Crimes looking up towards the door as McGee stormed in, obviously irritated about something. Not wanting to catch the ire of anyone from Team Gibbs, they all immediately turned their attention back to their screens as McGee went straight to Wilder's station. Eying the two agents for a few moments, just to make sure McGee was there to actually speak with Wilder and not just to pass along a message, Keating inhaled sharply before quickly typing in a command on his keyboard. He watched his screen with a blank expression as file after file about the trail he had discovered was deleted off his computer.

* * *

"What just happened?" Fornell asked the group in general as he turned to give Gibbs a bemused look. It always amused him to see one of the younger agents channel their inner Gibbs but he needed context to understand why.

"McGee's been getting a lot of poking and prodding lately, pushing his limits. I'm surprised it took this long for him to get attitude with someone." Gibbs explained with his own look of amusement. "DiNozzo. David. What happened before we arrived?"

"The Murphy's arrived with Jeanne's bag, there seemed to be a three-way snark fest between the two of them and McGee, Miss Murphy expressed excitement about being able to meet 'the inspiration for Agent Tommy and Officer Lisa', and then you three arrived." Ziva summarized before Tony could open his mouth.

"Not much, then. Colin let his sister do most of the talking?" Fornell commented, directing his question at Ziva. She nodded in reply. "Figures. Sacks, we're not going to find out much during this visit. Why don't you head back to the Hoover Building? I'll call you with any updates if they happen."

"Fine." Sack threw a glare Tony's way, as if Tony was to blame for Tim's irritation, and stormed back towards the elevator.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." Tony sneered at the elevator doors as they sealed Sacks in the metal tube. He turned back to Ziva with a roll of his eyes, changing his sneer to a smirk. "Back to the list of known associates, I guess."

"I guess..." Ziva glared back. With Tim off doing other things, she was stuck working with Tony all by herself and she was not happy about that.

* * *

Tim entered the room slowly in an attempt to keep his irritation outside and not inadvertently take it out on Jeanne Benoit. Making her defensive was not a good idea at the moment.

"Miss Murphy dropped off a weekend bag for you, Miss Benoit. Security will deliver it after putting it through our standard checks." Tim reported as he took a seat at the table across from Jeanne. It was a bit awkward holding her in an old interrogation room, but until the paperwork could be processed they couldn't put her into any of 'guest' quarters there at the Yard.

"As expected, of course..." Jeanne replied quietly. Tim was glad that she had calmed down significantly and wasn't still flailing about while sobbing since the team retreated from Greco's. He never liked having to deal with crying women when he had to get information from them.

"Of course." Tim repeated. He opened the folder he had been carrying and set it flat on the table, a blank legal pad right on top of the other papers. "These questions are just for formality purposes, Miss Benoit. We need to see if you may have noticed anything strange during your trip to the Navy Yard."

"I wasn't paying too close attention to the other cars around me. I was more concerned about how I was going to get Tony to agree to lunch." Jeanne said right away, as if to warn Tim she wasn't going to be much help.

"I understand that, Miss Benoit, but if you think back you may remember someone or something that registered as being rather peculiar to you. Was there a car that seemed to follow you for several blocks? Did anyone stare at your car when you had to stop at a red light?"

"Not...not that I saw." Jeanne fiddled with her hands on the table. "Other than thinking about Tony, I was looking to make sure none of the Murphy children were following me. There is no love lost between them and Tony after everything that happened with my father, and I wouldn't put it past them to take advantage of an opportunity to kick his ass."

"Colin said as much up in the Bull Pen." Tim commented dryly.

"Colin was here?" Jeanne's eyes snapped up to Tim in shock. "He came with Bridget?"

"Yes. Something about being her escort or whatnot. To be fair, I'm not surprised his father ordered it. According to the evidence so far, the Russians are the ones who shot up the restaurant and I'd bet  _someone_  was following you today. How else would they have known that you and Tony went to Greco's?" Tim wrote down a few notes on the legal pad as he spoke.

"Well..." Jeanne began. "I was on the main roads all the way here. Couldn't you check the security cameras to see if anyone was following me?"

"We are. We just need to see if you can provide us with a place to start. If not, we'll start with the cameras closest to the Murphy residence and follow your car as you made your way to the Navy Yard." Tim explained. He gave Jeanne the chance to carefully think over her memories of her trip to the Yard, not wanting to rush her and possibly cause her to give false information. False leads were a pain in the ass to clean up after.

"I didn't hit any traffic until I was close to Silver Spring. There was the occasional truck, but most of the cars in that area are hybrids. No one really stood out." Tim wrote down Jeanne's observations on the pad, nodding to let her know he was listening. "Once I passed the golf course in Rock Creek Park, though, it was a sudden mish mash of nearly every kind of car people drive in the D.C. area. You'd have to have an  _extremely_  unique car to be noticed."

"Anyone following you would have used a car designed to blend in with the general D.C. traffic. You noticing them would have been the last thing they wanted. Is there anything else you can remember?"

"There was a fender bender near the Smithsonian. It held me up until the drivers got their cars out of the street. I was sitting there for about ten minutes while they were arguing." Jeanne scrunched her face slightly as she tried to remember any other details.

"That's actually a good thing." Tim commented as he made a note about it. "If anyone was following you, they may have gotten stuck in traffic with you. They could have lost if you if they left. We can use face recognition on all the drivers in the cars around you when that happened."

A knock on the door grabbed both of their attentions, a security guard stepping in with Jeanne's bag.

"Miss Benoit's bag, Agent McGee. Agent Gibbs said to go ahead and bring it right in."

"Thanks, Thompson. You can set it down next to the door." Tim directed, giving the guard a smile in thanks for the delivery. As soon as the guard closed the door behind him, Tim turned back to Jeanne. "Anything else?"

"No. Nothing. Traffic was smooth the rest of the way here."

"Alright..." Tim wrote down a few more notes for himself for when he started looking at the security footage. "This will all be a great help. If you remember anything else about your trip here, anything at all, notify the guard outside to call for me. The paperwork about you accepting NCIS' protect should be processed soon, so you may be transferred to our guest quarters shortly."

"Thank you, Agent McGee. I know my...well, my arrival here must have thrown a wrench in your investigation." Jeanne frowned slightly.

"It's not a problem, Miss Benoit. If anything, it helped in a twisted sort of way. Now, I'm going to head back to the Bull Pen and get to work on the information you've just provided. I'll send Tony down the next time he has a break to check on you, if that's ok." Tim stood up, collecting the few things he brought with him. He waited for Jeanne to nod her consent for him to send Tony down before giving her a smile and heading out the door.


	14. It Begins

"Colin, why must you be such an ass?" Bridget hissed across her car, partially angry at the fact that Colin wouldn't let her drive her own vehicle. They were part of the way home already and had been arguing ever since they left the Navy Yard. "It was just Tim!"

"And DiNozzo! I don't care that Jeanne wants to get back with him. I still think he deserves to have his ass kicked for the shit he pulled." Colin snapped back, his eyes darting between looking out the front windshield and at the rear-view mirror.

"You damn well know that Tim wasn't going to let an altercation between the two of you happen. We were in the middle of his own agency." Bridget growled. She was getting fed up with all the bullshit that had suddenly hit the fan. Incident at Greco's be damned, all of this had been building up for a while. She could tell.

"I can handle Tim, Bridget. The only thing that was holding me back was that you needed to be driven home. If I had dropped that bag off by myself, I would currently be sitting in a cell for assaulting a federal agent." Colin informed Bridget quite bluntly. "I honestly do not see what Jeanne sees in him!"

"You don't know him like she does! Jeanne has seen a side of Agent DiNozzo that the rest of us haven't. A real side that really exists, if what Mickey said during Sunday brunch is anything to do by. You have to know that Mickey will step in and knock you back on your ass if you try to interfere with Jeanne's love life. Regardless of the weird, platonic soul mate bond you two share, he has known her longer and will always put her first if he's forced to choose between you two."

"Don't remind me." Colin ground out. He would never actually begrudge Mickey his relationship with Jeanne. It was similar to the relationship Colin had with the irritating red head sitting right next to him, so he could understand just how ingrained some of Mickey's mannerisms are when it comes to Jeanne. But such an open weak spot in their line of work wasn't exactly the best of things to have. The only reason why Bridget hadn't been touched was because their father put the word out that such an event would be a declaration of war on the family. Drastic, yes, but it kept Bridget  _out_  of everything that was going on.

"Whatever." Bridget shot back. "Now please tell me that something is going to be done about all of this. Just because you all don't tell me anything doesn't mean I'm blind. I've got a general idea of what you all are doing."

"Scott is working on it." Ok, so maybe Bridget wasn't completely out-of-the-know. None of them were that naïve to think she was, but they still worked hard to keep her out of the line of fire.

"Great. Scott is working on it." Bridget repeated with heavy sarcasm, turning her attention out the front window. "That'll go quickly."

"He's doing as well as any of us would, given the circumstances. There's not much we can do with NCIS involved." Colin frowned deeply. He couldn't exactly say anything past that without giving Bridget details, and he  _really_  didn't want to be the one who started doing that. Bridget let out a heavy sigh, crossing her arms in irritation, but she remained silent. Mickey had said that Jeanne was safe enough with NCIS for now and, to Bridget, that was the most important detail at the moment. She personally couldn't do anything so she would have to trust that everyone else knew what they were doing.

Even though both Murphy children had been silent for several more blocks, Colin constantly checked the rear view mirror with a deep frown. He couldn't tell from this distance that it was still the same car, it was a popular car in the D.C. area, but he had a gut feeling that the same black sedan had been following the two of them for the majority of their trip.

"Colin!" Bridget shrieked in horror, instantly grabbing his attention. It took only a second for him to turn the other direction to see what she was looking at and see the SUV that ran through the red light at full speed just before it rammed into their vehicle. Bridget's tiny Mini Cooper didn't stand a chance, rolling several times before hitting a street light and landing upside down.

* * *

Tim picked up his cell phone automatically, too busy digging his way through files to even bother looking at the caller ID. He had returned to helping Tony and Ziva after finally sending out the press release he typed up about the incident at Greco's.

"Agent McGee." He replied absentmindedly, expecting a report from an agent from either NCIS or the FBI.

" _Agent McGee, this is Dr. Stanley from George Washington Memorial._ " The name and place grabbed Tim's attention immediately. He knew that a few hospitals were calling NCIS to make arrangements for the bullets they were pulling out of patients to be picked up for processing, but none of them had his personal cell phone number.

"How can I help you, Doctor?"

" _I have a young, red headed woman here in our emergency room who says you're her emergency contact. A Bridget Murphy, I believe her ID says. Do you know her?_ "

"Yes, I know her. What happened?" Tim asked in mild horror, his stomach filling with dread.

" _She's being treated for several injuries she obtained in a car crash between her vehicle and an SUV. The police here will have more details as to what exactly happened. Now, we need someone who can come in and help us calm her down and your name was the only one we've been able to get out of her. Miss Murphy is quite hysterical, going on and on about the man who was in the car with her, who is apparently her brother, but we would rather not give her any sedatives at this time. She has a severe head injury and we would prefer her to stay awake so she can be monitored._ "

"And her brother?" Tim was almost afraid to know. If Bridget wouldn't shut up about Colin then that means they weren't telling her anything about him.

" _Mr. Murphy is currently in the OR. We're attempting to remove a piece of shrapnel from the driver's side door, but I currently do not know how the procedure is fairing. I have been with Miss Murphy for the better part of the hour trying to treat her around her hysteria._ "

"Ok, I...I'll be in right away. I'll take care of contacting their family."

" _Thank you, Agent McGee._ " Tim lowered his hand slowly after the doctor hung up, suddenly feeling numb. This couldn't be a coincidence that Colin and Bridget were in such a terrible car crash right after leaving the Navy Yard. And he knew that Bridget drove a Mini Cooper, so the mental images he was coming up with were all that much worse.

"Tim?" Tony asked in slight confusion as he and Ziva returned with the food they had run out to get. Tony's lunch had been interrupted, and Ziva and Tim never stopped to take theirs.

"I have to go to George Washington Memorial." Tim rushed out, finally coming back to reality. He jumped up to collect his things while simultaneously saving the searches his computer had been running.

"What happened?" Ziva came closer, clearly worried.

"Apparently Colin and Bridget were in a car crash not long after they left earlier. Colin's in surgery and Bridget's being treated in the ER. She's hysterical because of Colin and they can't get her to calm down, with sedation being too dangerous at the moment. My name and number were the only things the doctors were able to get out of her." Tim rushed to explain, pausing only to give his team mates a significant look. "Someone obviously followed them from here. Get someone in Cyber Crimes to track their route from here to wherever they got hit. Who ever it was is probably connected to the incident at Greco's, which is most likely why Bridget gave my information to the doctors and not her family's."

"Understood. What will you be doing?" Tony inquired, needing details to pass along to others when reports about Greco's starting coming in.

"I'll be calling the Murphy Family homestead after helping calm down Bridget. Not only do they need to know about Colin and Bridget, but we've clearly got enough to justify bringing some of them in for questioning. Two members of the Murphy Family and one person friendly with them have been attacked within a few hours of each other. This is  _no_  coincidence. Tell Gibbs to call me when he gets in from whatever it is he's doing with Fornell. After that, I want the two of you to head over the the Hoover Building and ride Sacks' ass until he's able to give you a lead that gives you an idea of where to look for more information on the Russians."

"Got it." Ziva stated, stepping aside to let Tim rush towards the elevators. It was clear to the three of them that they all had been too late in preventing the start of a mob war. The Murphy Family had been attacked with intent and it definitely wasn't going to go unanswered.


	15. Medical Updates

Tim sat behind Bridget on the bed, holding her arms back so the ER staff could access her injuries easier.

"Bridget, you need to calm down. Colin is going to be fine," Tim repeated into her ear. He let out a huff as she struggled again and slammed into his chest, silently wishing the rest of the Murphy's would just arrive already. He had changed his mind and called them before arriving at the hospital. Her father would have an easier time of getting Bridget to relax than he was.

"Fuck off! I wanna see Colin!" Bridget shrieked back. Tim gave the nearest nurse a look of apology when Bridget's struggles caused him to accidentally elbow the woman in the ribs.

"Just a few moments longer, Agent McGee, and then I'm done," The ER doctor spoke up. Tim simply grunted in response. Dr. Stanley had gone up to help remove the shrapnel from Colin shortly after Tim arrived and Tim didn't quite remember the name of this new doctor. Bridget let out a painful squeal when the final shard of glass was removed from her thigh, signaling that the last dose of anesthetic wasn't strong enough to last as long as the doctors had hoped, and Tim pulled her closer on instinct. He dropped his hold on her arms and wrapped his own around Bridget's chest to hug her when the doctor stepped away, a mental image of Sarah flashing through his head. Tim certainly wouldn't be able to keep as calm as he currently was if his own baby sister, instead of Colin's, was in his arms.

"He's done. He's done. Now try to relax, Bridget. They're going to give you something for the pain. Just a quick shot. Then after your parents get here and are updated, you'll be able to go see how Colin is doing. Okay?" Bridget didn't reply. She just let out a sob and leaned back into Tim, breaking down from the combination of her pain and her worry for Colin. Movement in the main hall caught Tim's eye and he looked up, catching a flash of familiar red hair.  _Margaret_ , Tim's memory supplied. Slowly removing himself from behind Bridget, bringing the back of the bed up so she could lean on it, Tim headed out the the door and into the middle of an argument.

"We're not working with NCIS, dammit. I don't care  _what_  DiNozzo tries to tell us," Morgan hissed at his sister. Margaret rolled her eyes, crossing her arms in irritation.

"We don't have the time to deal with this, Morgan," she snapped back.

"I'm the one who told Tony to summon you all to the Navy Yard," Tim interrupted before Morgan could reply. "I called him after I notified you about Bridget and Colin. We  _do_  have enough to bring you all in for questioning, Morgan."

"I. Don't. Care. NCIS can kiss my ass," Morgan shot back. Tim opened his mouth to reply, but Fredrick and Penelope appeared behind Morgan. The two Murphy children noticed them immediately after Tim and they remained silent until the older couple were with-in appropriate conversation distance.

"Timothy, darling. Seeing you here was unexpected," Penelope spoke first, reaching out to pull Tim into a hug. He went along with it and hugged her back. "I knew you were the one to call us, but I expected you to be back at work already."

"No. I stayed behind to help with Bridget. Keep her as calm as possible as the doctor took care of her. He just finished, actually. They should be putting on the last of her bandages."

"Thank you for that. I'm sure she's been demanding to go see Colin the entire time," Fredrick said. He gave Tim a short nod before giving his children a knowing look. Their argument was probably heard down the hall.

"She has. And it was no hardship for me to stay. Between what happened at Greco's a few hours ago and this incident, I have to wait for everyone to do their jobs before I can do mine," Tim continued the small talk, not wanting to be the one to change the topic. "Might as well offer Bridget some comfort with a familiar face while I could."

"Yes, yes, yes. I am sure she will tell you how much she has appreciated you staying after she's calmed down and we've been updated about Colin. Will you be coming up with us, darling?" Penelope asked.

"I don't want to intrude..." Tim began.

"Nonsense. Colin likes you more than he does most of us. If he's awake when we see him, I'm sure he'd rather see you than our ugly mugs," Margaret cracked with a small snicker, stepping out of reach of the head smack Morgan tried to give her.

"Colin won't be awake for a while. I know at least that. I'll have to leave for work before then," Tim pointed out.

"Then at least come with us to be there for Bridget until we're fully updated. Tell her what you can about Jeanne. Bridget was so worried when Jeanne called us earlier to tell us that she was going into protective custody," Penelope insisted. She gave Tim a mom-look that caused him to purse his lips slightly and look down in amusement. His own mother hadn't given him a look like that in years.

"I will stay a little bit longer," Tim relented.

"Good. Now, let's check in on Bridget. I'm sure she's exhausted," Penelope said. The woman stepped around Tim to walk into the room Bridget was in, Fredrick following suit after giving Margaret and Morgan a look.

"Things are going to become pretty interesting, aren't they?" Margaret asked rhetorically before tailing her parents. Morgan and Tim gave each other a glare before also entering the room.

* * *

" _Colin going to live?_ " Tony asked. Tim rubbed at his face, blindly looking out the window of Colin's ICU room. He wasn't exactly supposed to be using his cell in ICU, but Tim was currently alone with Colin while the other members of the Murphy family were out speaking with the doctors. Tim had to take advantage of his chances when they came around.

"The doctors have no doubts that Colin will live. What condition he will be in when he wakes up, however, is a different manner entirely. His body is intact, but they won't know about his mental capacities until they can interact with him. Colin may have the mental capacities of a five-year-old for all they know right now."

" _Fuck..._ " Tony trailed off. Tim could understand the sentiment. Tony was going to have to tell Jeanne.

"Please tell me Sacks was able to give you and Ziva something," Tim continued.

" _We have confirmation that it was the Russians. More specifically, the Malinov's. The O'Riley family probably knew what happened before hand,_ " Tony answered, pulling a swear out of Tim. An Irish family had a hand in the Malinov's attack on the Murphy's. Tony didn't have to tell Tim that for him to know it. This wasn't good.

"Tony, please tell me the McCarthy's and the Durand's are no where near this," Tim said. That was the last thing Tim needed. If those two families were involved, as well, then it would mean that the Murphy's were being targeted.

" _Not from what Ziva and I have been able to tell. Those two families are two peas in a pod at the moment, but whatever they're doing has nothing to do with the Murphy's,_ " Tony replied. " _When are you going to be coming back to the Yard?_ "

"After the Murphy's are done speaking with Colin's doctors. I better go before a nurse comes in and catches me on my phone. Catch me up when I return." Tim ended the call, knowing Tony was in work-mode and wouldn't mind the blunt disconnection. Slipping his cell back into his coat pocket, Tim turned to Colin with a heavy sigh. The other man was connected to several machines and buried under several layers of tubes and wires. The only reason Tim was able to tell that Colin was alive was the constant beep of the heart monitor.

"What the hell happened, Colin?" Tim muttered under his breath. Stepping up to the bed, Tim looked his old college buddy up and down. This was a hell of a way to end the day. Tim wasn't holding on to any hope that Colin would remain as  _Colin_  after he woke up, not after getting a LEO to show him some photos of the accident, but Tim wasn't about to admit that to anyone else just yet.

"They expect Colin to wake up within the next day or so," Morgan announced as he entered the room. Tim looked up in acknowledgment, mentally noting that the rest of the Murphy's remained out in the hallway. Morgan didn't look as pissed off as he had been earlier when he and Margaret arrived, either, so the family must have had a talk while Tim was alone with Colin. A resigned expression suddenly appearing on Morgan's face confirmed it. "Would you like us to arrive at the Nary Yard in any specific order or all at once, Tim?"

"Any order you like, Morgan. Just make sure all of you are on the grounds by 7pm tonight," Tim answered. Penelope must have lectured her children into submission. He remembered that much about her from college.

"Alright..." Morgan trailed off, turning his attention to his little brother.

"I'm sure everything is going to turn out okay, Morgan. Colin always was a stubborn son-of-a-bitch," Tim said. Morgan snorted in agreement, a small smile appearing on his face.

"I know. Just don't call him that in front of our mother."

"Don't plan on it. I actually want to live long enough to have grandchildren of my own."

"I'm sure you do," Morgan chuckled. "Was there anything else you needed right away, Tim?"

"No. I'm heading back to the Navy Yard to check up on everyone's progress. This is connected to what happened at Greco's. I'm sure of it. We're going to figure out who did it and why it happened, Morgan," Tim promise.

"Colin has always been my favorite sibling, Tim. He's a favorite for many. I certainly hope, for the sake of those responsible, that he survives. If Colin dies, there'll be hell to pay," Morgan said, giving Tim a blank expression. It was more than enough of a warning for Tim. A redundant one, because he knew what the probable result would be if Colin died, but a warning all the same.

"Noted. I'll see you when you arrive at the Yard, Morgan." Giving the oldest Murphy child a nod, Tim headed out the door. He debated saying farewell to the rest of the Murphy's, but he decided against it and slipped down the hall before the others could notice he was leaving. Not only was he going to be seeing them all later that evening, anyway, but everyone needed to focus on Colin right now. Until they all arrived, Tim needed to turn his own focus on the mess Tony had waiting for him.


	16. Switching Gears

Scott hesitated as he approached his father's office. The others were meeting to discuss who should go to the Navy Yard in what order, and Scott felt uneasy about interrupting. They all needed to leave soon if they didn't want the wrath of NCIS to be brought down on them. Still, he found something that needed to be shared immediately.

"Come in," Fredrick called out when Scott knocked. Scott slowly opened the door and stepped through, seeing most of the siblings and his father looking at him as he entered. "Yes, Scott?"

"Pops, I found out where the SUV that hit Colin and Bridget came from," Scott answered. All this siblings started talking at once, but their father whistled sharply to quiet them out.

"Where?" Fredrick asked.

Scott walked up to his father's desk and handed over the file folder he was carrying.

"Government impound lot. Looks like it's Air Force," Scott replied.

"AFOSI. Air Force Office of Special Investigations," Mickey supplied when none of the Murphy children said anything. He gave Fredrick a severe look. "Who do we know that has ties to the Air Force? Which of the families?"

"Most of the Russians," Fredrick answered as he looked over the photos Scott had just delivered.

"First Greco's. Then this. Pops, they're going after the girls," Morgan said. "We need to get them the fuck out of here."

"That's not going to happen as long as Jeanne is in NCIS custody. Bridget won't leave without her," Mickey pointed out.

"Then we convince Jeanne to  _leave_ ," Morgan continued.

"Boys," Fredrick interrupted before an argument could start. "Scott, go tell the others to start looking into the Russian families to find out which of them took the SUV from the lot. Once you're done, head to the Navy Yard. You, Tara, and Aiden will be the first ones to go."

"Got it," Scott replied. He gave all his siblings a nod before walking out the door.

Even though he had a big say on how things were done, Scott was happy he held no interest in the top-level shit his father and the others did. It gave him the opportunity to leave whenever, like he could right now. He didn't really want to know what Morgan or Mickey would suggest should be done to the Russians. Scott was squeamish enough as it was without his brothers making him want to throw up with the kind of vivid detail they would use.

* * *

"Be blunt, McGee. How much shit do you think we're in?" Sacks asked in quiet tones as the two of them looked over Cyber Crimes at the Navy Yard.

"Once the Murphy's recover from this unexpected blow? I don't think we have a snowball's chance in hell at stopping a body count. Lord have mercy on whoever was driving that SUV," Tim replied.

"So I take it we never got a solid image of the driver from any of the cameras," Sacks said.

"Yeah. It's a dead end. The SUV had tinted windows that were probably reinforced so they wouldn't shatter on impact. We're tracking its route through the city to find where it originated from, but something tells me its point-of-origin isn't on camera," Tim said. He frowned as he took in the various agents driving themselves crazy as they poured over the hours upon hours of traffic cam footage. It was a race to find out who attacked the Murphy's before the Murphy's did.

"Who got to tell Benoit?" Sacks asked, not sure he wanted to know the answer. He saw what Jeanne looked like when she was returned to the Navy Yard after the incident at Greco's. That woman just could not catch a break.

"Tony. Who else?" Tim sighed. He waited a few moments before turning to look Sacks in the face. "We need to find out who's siding with whom. Now isn't the time to afford ourselves any assumptions."

"I'll have my people start with the Italians. If they're stockpiling, then we need to find out who's all going to have access to those stockpiles," Sacks offered.

"Okay. Once everyone here is done with the traffic cam footage, I'll have them turn to the other Irish families. Don Murphy has a history of preference for his fellow Irishmen, so seeing where that preference is placed is a good place to start on our end."

"Would it be tacky to start placing bets on which family the first body comes from?" Sacks asked, pulling a sharp laugh out of Tim.

"I'd rather not press my luck. Let me know what your people find. I'll let you know what Gibbs and Ziva get from the Murphy's when they're done questioning them all," Tim said. Sacks nodded in acknowledgment before turning and leaving.

Tim sighed again as he turned his gaze back to the Cyber Crimes unit. He  _should_  be panicking like the rest of them. A full on  _mob war_  had just started right before his eyes. Tim had no idea why he was disturbingly calm over all of this.

"Agent McGee!" Wilder called from her station.

"Coming," Tim replied, making his way across the room until Wilder was in front of him. "What do you have for me?"

"The SUV came from the AFOSI impound lot," Wilder reported, getting straight to the point. She pulled up multiple footage screenshots that showed the SUV both pulling out of the impound lot and hitting Bridget Murphy's car to prove they were the same vehicle.

"Contact AFOSI  _now_. I want to know everything there is to know about that vehicle. How they commandeered it. Who previously owned it. How much fuel was in the damn thing. Everything," Tim ordered.

"Already started," Wilder said, pointing to the agent on the phone next to her.

"Good. I'm heading up to watch the Murphy interviews. Call my cell once you have it all," Tim said.

Tim turned on his heel and headed out the door. This was not good news, and the others were going to be pissed. Getting another government agency involved was going to create a whole new list of problems and issues.


	17. Divide and Conquer

"You really know how to provide good news, McGee," Fornell cracked as everyone mulled over Tim's latest update from Cyber Crimes. Both teams from NCIS and the FBI huddled together in the Bull Pen as they looked over the file Tim had passed around.

"Believe me, Fornell. I wish the SUV came from a civilian source just as much as you do," Tim said.

"The Murphy's Ziver and I spoke with so far haven't said anything about AFOSI impound. Is there any chance they found out before we did?" Gibbs said, speaking up to ask a solid question for once.

"Probably. Wilder and the others had hurdles of red tape to jump over before we could even get our hands on the traffic footage. That would have given the Murphy's a big enough of a head start to have found out by now. You could, of course, ask Morgan once he finally gets his ass here. He's most likely the one who would have taken over that task since Colin is in ICU," Tim replied.

"How much of the Murphy brood is left? Gibbs and Ziva have already spent hours speaking with the four we've seen," Tony asked incredulously.

"Five," Tim said. "Gibbs and Ziva have spoken with Scott, Tara, Aiden, and Kathleen. Because we obviously can't speak with Colin, that leaves Morgan, Margaret, Bridget, Fredrick, and Penelope."

"Holy Mother of Mercy. That poor woman gave birth to that many babies?" Tony asked without expecting much of an answer.

"They sent the lower ranking family members first to give themselves more time," Sacks continued the conversation as if Tony hadn't said anything. "We should have made them all come in at once."

"We don't have the ability to, Sacks. We have grounds to question them, but that's it. We can't  _force_  them to come in because they're not suspects. We're lucky they all have agreed to be questioned in the first place," Tim argued.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Sacks is right. If the Murphy's know who was driving the SUV, then they are using this time to send Mickey after him. It is logical to expect them to retaliate," Ziva stated.

"Whoever it was is going to have AFOSI covering their ass. No one just 'steals' a car from a federal impound lot. This was an inside job," Fornell said before the younger agents could volley more arguments back and forth.

"Which means confronting AFOSI about their missing vehicle will lead us straight into a wild goose chase. What do you suggest we do? We can't not talk with AFOSI. It's on official record that we know the SUV came from them. We  _have_  to address it now if we want to maintain the integrity of our investigation. Hell, I already have agents seeking information from them," Tim said.

"Trigger a mole hunt inside the agency and use our outsider's point-of-view to guide us in the right direction," Sacks suggested. "Not only will we find out who we can trust to tell us how the SUV got stolen, but we'll also learn who the inside man is."

"That's risky, Sacks. What if the rat jumps ship?" Tony asked.

"We'll be there to catch them, DiNozzo. AFOSI is like us. They lack funds. There will only be so many employees with constant access to the impound lot. We tail the primary staff and bring in anyone that begins to act suspiciously," Gibbs said.

"If we do that, we'll need Vance ready to go to bat for us. The Director of AFOSI will go apeshit once he finds out we're tailing his agents," Tim pointed out.

"Let Vance worry about that when the time comes," Gibbs replied.

Tim looked at the agents around him, wondering if they were seriously considering doing this. Insinuating there's a mole in another agency ran the risk of having NCIS and the FBI investigated, as well. The Director of AFOSI was known for being that kind of petty and vindictive. Internal Affairs would be on them faster than Director Vance could confront his AFOSI counterpart.

"I don't know," Tim let out, turning to Gibbs for guidance. "I see this biting us in the ass later on, Boss. I don't think we should go this route. Director Reynolds makes Vance look like a door mat."

"Gotta weigh the risks against the rewards, McGee. Can you think of any other logical way for us to get what we need?" Gibbs offered. Tim was supposed to be the one in charge, so Gibbs wasn't going to force the decision. If Tim had a problem, then they had to reassess.

"What other way could there be? We need to know who aided the Malinov's in their attack against the Murphy's. Letting AFOSI conduct their own mole hunt will give us that," Sacks said.

"We ID the driver," Tim replied in a terse tone. "Most of the families stick with people of their own ethnicity, so we know the driver is Russian. Or Irish, if you consider the O'Riley's involvement. The windows of the SUV were tinted, but maybe Cyber Crimes can find a face shot somewhere in the traffic footage if they look again. We cross reference that with AFOSI personnel that has access to the impound lot the SUV came from and we'll have a specific name on hand."

"You want us to wait on a  _maybe_ , McGee? With each passing minute, the chances of us actually catching the Malinov insider goes down," Fornell said.

"Just give Cyber Crimes some more time before jumping the gun. We know the Malinov's are involved with the Greco's incident, but we have nothing solid connecting them to Colin and Bridget's accident," Tim insisted.

"Tim's right," Tony spoke up. "Say we find the mole quickly. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if we went to question them about both attacks, but they knew nothing about Greco's? A mob war is  _not_ the time to follow our guts and  _hope_  we'll have the paperwork to back us up later. We need hard evidence going in."

"Okay, fine. Then what do we do in the mean time? Twiddle our thumbs?" Sack asked.

"We have five Murphy's that still need to come in. They should keep us plenty occupied once they arrive," Ziva answered.

"I'm questioning Fredrick," Tim said in what he hoped was a tone that said not to argue. "And dear god, Tony, do  _not_  go anywhere near Bridget. She needs a delicate hand right now, and the argument you had with Colin earlier will probably trigger her into a panic attack about Colin."

"I'll speak with her, Tim," Gibbs offered. He usually handled any small children they came across in the middle of a case. A strained, injured, and panicked young adult would be easier to question if they were handled in a similar way.

"That leaves Penelope, Margaret, and Morgan. Any other dibs while we're claiming them?" Fornell asked with a touch of sarcasm.

"Tony, you're not questioning Morgan, either," Tim said.

"Seriously? Who  _am_  I allowed to talk to in the Murphy family, then?" Tony asked with an incredulous look on his face.

"Penelope. She'll be asking about Jeanne, so you can use that as a transition between questions. Ziva can question Margaret. Fornell or Sacks can question Morgan," Tim answered. "Morgan's not too keen on NCIS right now, so he'll be easier to deal with if none of us do the questioning."

"That's settled, then. Are we missing anything that needs to be done ASAP?" Sacks asked.

Tim collected the file he brought up from Cyber Crimes and flipped through it briefly to look for any details that stood out. Right now, finding the identity of the SUV driver was paramount.

"I'll have Cyber Crimes send everything we've got on the SUV over to your team, Sacks. Have your people comb through it, as well. We need to find something, anything, that'll give us an in."

"Focus on that, Sacks. I'll take over for Morgan Murphy," Fornell said.

"Alright. We're all set, then," Tim said, handing the file over to Sacks so he could go over it in detail, himself.

"We're going to be pulling an all-nighter with this. Everyone should grab their go-bag as some point to double check they have everything they need. With everything getting thrown at us right now, who knows when we'll next get to sleep in our own beds," Gibbs reminded everyone before they could split to their different tasks.

Tim remained seated as the others all stood up and slowly made their way off in whatever direction they needed to go. So much had happened in the last 24 hours. He couldn't believe it had only been one day. Had someone told him that morning that his college roommate was going to end up in the ICU by the end of the day with the prognosis of a steamed vegetable, Tim would have called that person a liar. But now, it was a lot to take in all at once. None of this was going to end well for anyone.


	18. Wild Goose Chase

Bridget sat in the chair next to Colin's bed, a dead look on her face as the crash played in her head over and over again. She couldn't get the sound of her own shriek for Colin to go away. It was a miracle neither of them died.

"Bridget, sweetie, are you sure you don't want to come home with your father and I?" Penelope asked. She tucked a stray lock of Bridget's hair behind one of the younger woman's ears.

"I'm fine, Mother," Bridget replied, finally looking Penelope in the eye. "I just need a little bit more time before I head back to the Navy Yard. We shouldn't keep Tim waiting for too long. He might decide to fetch us."

"You take as much time as you need. Tim will understand if you're later than everyone else," Penelope insisted.

"Of course, Mother," Bridget said.

Neither woman said anything else. Penelope gave one last sorrowful look at Colin before walking out of the room, meeting Fredrick in the hallway to leave. Bridget turned her attention to look over all the machines Colin was connected to. It hardly looked like her brother under all the wires and bandages. She couldn't even see him breathing. Only the steady beep coming from one of the many machines told Bridget that her brother was still alive.

"Miss," a nurse interrupted Bridget's silence. "Some bandages and stitches will need to be checked on now that your brother has been out of surgery long enough. For privacy reasons, we'll need you to leave the room while we're doing that."

"That's okay. I'll just leave and come back again tomorrow. Don't worry about rushing to let me back in sooner," Bridget said. She stood up and collected her things and was out the door before the nurse could say anything else.

"Ready, Bri?" Aiden asked as Bridget walked into the lobby. He had already been to the Navy Yard and volunteered to take Bridget when the time came.

"Not really, but let's go," Bridget admitted.

The Murphy siblings were silent the whole way to the Navy Yard; A stark contrast to Bridget and Colin's own car ride earlier in the day. There wasn't anything Aiden thought he could say to his only younger sibling, and Bridget wasn't in the mood to talk. She was about to spend a lot of time doing just that with an NCIS agent, and she was sure it wasn't going to be Tim.

"Aiden Murphy and Bridget Murphy," Aiden spoke with the guard at the entrance to the Yard parking lot.

Bridget glared at the building as Aiden found them a parking spot and guided Bridget to the main doors. Whoever hit her and Colin knew the two of them came here earlier. Her first thought was to question the loyalty of every agent they crossed paths with during their visit, from beginning to end. If only she could get her father to have Mickey look into it. However, it was unlikely. Thanks to the incident at Greco's, the Navy Yard was loaded with both NCIS agents and FBI. Not exactly a prime situation for Mickey to investigate.

"And the youngest arrives," DiNozzo speaks up when he notices Bridget and Aiden being escorted to the MCRT's work area. He stood up to greet them. "You've had quite the stressful day, Miss Murphy. We would have understood if you wanted to wait until morning."

"Don't lie," Bridget replied bluntly. She wasn't in the mood to be her usual, polite self. "Tim would have had me fetched if I waited to long. You and I both know that."

DiNozzo nodded his head in agreement, not being able to argue. Her parents had arrived already, so Tim would have ordered someone to go get Bridget if she didn't arrive by the time Tim was done speaking with her father. They needed all the interviews done before continuing their investigation.

"Special Agent Gibbs will be speaking with you this evening, once he's able to get away from his meeting with the Director. Follow me and I'll take you to the room we'll be using for your interview. Mr. Murphy, you're welcome to stay out here with Special Agent David," DiNozzo said.

Bridget gave Aiden a look telling him to listen when it looked like her brother was about the argue. Rolling her eyes at how stubborn all her siblings could be, she stepped forward and followed DiNozzo out of the Bull Pen. They didn't have long to walk. It looked like they were only on the other side of the stairwell to upstairs when DiNozzo stopped in front of a conference room door and held it open for Bridget.

"Just around the corner over there is our vending machines if the drinks and snacks set out aren't to your taste," DiNozzo said, motioning down the hall with his free hand. Bridget nodded to show she heard what he said as she looked over what was provided: water, orange juice, and granola bars. She couldn't exactly argue with the selection.

"It's fine, Agent DiNozzo," Bridget said.

"If you need anything else, you know where Agent David is. I'll be elsewhere," DiNozzo said. He left Bridget alone in the conference room with just her thoughts.

Bridget selected a random chair to sit in, finally completely alone for the first time since that morning. Had it really only been just that morning? It felt like it had been decades since she woke up. She was so exhausted. Bridget absentmindedly rubbed the bandages on her leg, knowing part of her exhaustion was coming from the pain medication the doctors prescribed her. She was lucky she didn't need crutches to walk.

"Good evening, Miss Murphy," Gibbs said as soon as he walked in the door. "I apologize for the delay."

"It's okay. Agent DiNozzo said you were with your Director," Bridget replied. She looked over Gibbs as he sat a few chairs over from hers. That felt like a good sign. Had he sat directly across from her, Bridget would have been concerned about what kinds of questions Gibbs was about to ask her.

"Playing nice with the FBI has its ups and down," Gibbs said as the only form of explanation. He spread open a file on the table as he turned his chair so he could look at Bridget straight on instead of sideways. "Now, how are you feeling? You weren't rushed out of the hospital to come here, were you?"

"I've certainly been better, Agent Gibbs. I now need a new car. But no. I wasn't rushed here. I have already been cleared to go home by the ER doctors, pain medication in hand," Bridget said. She pulled her bottle of pills out of her purse and shook it for emphasis. "One more dose and I'll be in la la land until morning."

"Okay," Gibbs said. "I don't have too many questions for you, Miss Murphy, so you'll be home and resting before you know it."

Bridget nodded, a slight smirk of amusement appearing on her face. She was injured, yes, but Bridget didn't think she warranted being handled with kid gloves.

"Do you remember anything on your way into the Yard today, when you were on your way here to drop off the bag for Miss Benoit? Did anything outside the car catch your eye?" Gibbs asked.

"Not really. I wasn't paying too close attention to the road. Colin drove both directions. Something about my father insisting on it. They didn't want me doing anything alone after what happened at Greco's this morning," Bridget replied.

"Understandable," Gibbs commented, writing something down in the file. "And the SUV? Did you see anything unique about it when you noticed it running the red light?"

"I..." Bridget began to say she didn't notice anything about the SUV, either, but she paused to think it over some more. There was something. "The windows were dark. All of them, including the windshield. Darker than I expected to see on a vehicle that had its windows tinted."

"Anything else?" Gibbs asked, not pausing in his writing.

"It never tried to slow down. Whoever was behind the wheel floored it through the light. By the time I alerted Colin to it, the SUV was already about to hit us."

"When you first arrived here today, with Colin, did anything catch your eye when you were still out in the parking lot? Did it seem like anyone was following you, either on foot or in some kind of vehicle? Did anyone look familiar, as if you've seen them somewhere else recently?"

Bridget took a few moments to think about what she did after she left the car when she and Colin arrived. She remembered Colin cracking a joke about her using him as a pack mule as he pulled Jeanne's bag out of the trunk. Then they came straight inside. She didn't remember looking around at anyone.

"No. No one. We were in the middle of the parking lot for a federal law enforcement agency. I didn't think looking around was necessary," Bridget finally answered. "And I've done so much shopping recently that it'd be a miracle if I remembered any of the faces that I saw."

"That's okay. There's nothing wrong with not being paranoid in a place you thought you were safe," Gibbs said.

"Except this time I should have been. Colin and I both should have been," Bridget pointed out. Gibbs remained silent after Bridget's comment, which only prompted her to ramble more. "I should have just let Colin bring Jeanne's bag by himself. He wouldn't be in ICU if I hadn't have come with. He'd be in one of your holding cells right now for punching Agent DiNozzo if I'd let him come alone."

"I'd like to think that, had your brother punched DiNozzo, he'd already be out of the holding cell right now," Gibbs said. "Especially since it would have been DiNozzo. Tony doesn't hold grudges if he knows he deserved it."

"How nice of him," Bridget replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster. She knew that already from all the times Jeanne spoke about DiNozzo, but Bridget didn't want to admit it at the moment.

"After you were taken care of in the ER, did you notice anyone lingering around your bed or your brother's room? Anyone who wasn't hospital staff?" Gibbs asked, redirecting the conversation back to his questions.

"I had a curtain around me in the ER. Once Tim left to go see what happened to Colin, my parents arrived. I was occupied, so I didn't pay attention to the staff coming and going," Bridget said. "Same thing once I was allowed to leave and I went up to see Colin, myself. The only times I noticed anyone who wasn't family, it was someone from the hospital staff. Or, at least, someone  _dressed_  to look like hospital staff."

Gibbs didn't ask another question as he wrote down notes in the file. Bridget didn't understand why they were asking her about the people she saw when she knew they had access to security cameras, traffic cams, and the like, but she wasn't going to complain. Redundant questions were easy to answer.

"That's all I have for you, Miss Murphy," Gibbs said as he finished off the last sentence of his notes. "You're free to either wait for your parents or leave with the brother who brought you here."

"Seriously? That's it? No other questions?" Bridget felt compelled to ask. All of that could have been asked back at the hospital.

"Yes, that's it. Unless you think you have _more_  that I need to know about, that's all we needed to get from you."

Bridget stared at Gibbs for a few moments, waiting to hear one more question that would be the  _real_  reason she was called in, but it never came. They apparently wanted next to nothing from her.

"Okay," Bridget gave in. She stood up and collected her purse. "I'll have Aiden take me home."

"He's waiting for you in the Bull Pen," Gibbs said as he collected the file contents and stood up, himself. "Thank you for taking the time to come in, Miss Murphy."

"Of course," Bridget said slowly.

She gave Gibbs one last strange look before heading out to meet Aiden, who was hopefully behaving around Agent David. That was the strangest meeting she had, and Bridget couldn't help but feel like she was being made to chase wild goose for no damn reason. She needed to call Mickey later for some answers.


	19. Dead Ends

Mickey pinched the bridge of his nose while the Murphy siblings argued around him. It had been nearly two weeks since Colin ended up in ICU, and the family had descended into chaos. It was a miracle that Fredrick and Mickey were able to keep tabs on anything.

"Morgan, please tell me you have an update. I'll take anything," Fredrick said, raising his voice so he could be heard above his children. They all went quiet upon hearing their father's voice, but they continued to glare at whomever they were arguing with.

"I got one thing for you, Dad. The driver was found dead this morning. Body washed up on shore sometime last night and a civilian called it in. FBI was on the scene within the hour," Morgan reported. "Nothing on who killed the son-of-a-bitch, though."

"Nothing?" Margaret hissed.

"There's nothing. As far as we have been able to get from our sources, the driver was a fucking freelancer. Was probably offed by whoever hired him to cover their tracks," Morgan said.

"Mickey?" Fredrick said, giving his adopted son a look that asked his real question.

"I've got nothing. None of my own sources have been able to get their hands on anything related to the driver," Mickey answered. "The agents investigating are, surprisingly, keeping things close to the chest on this."

"There's gotta be someone at NCIS we can press, then. We're depending too much on the FBI. You're being territorial by using them so much," Morgan insisted.

"Bite me, Morgan," Mickey snapped.

"Until we get Jeanne back, we will not be touching NCIS," Fredrick spoke up. "The last thing we need is for them to suspect her of being a plant."

"She kinda is, Dad. NCIS has been reacting in our favor because they have her in protective custody and need her for their investigation into the shooting at Greco's," Margaret pointed out.

"There's letting the situation happen as it happens and then there's manipulating the situation to happen as we see fit. We're not putting Jeanne in a position that makes it look like we purposely set it up for her to end up in protective custody," Fredrick said.

"If we make Jeanne look like a plant, then we'll be making DiNozzo look like a traitor because of their rekindled relationship. As much as I'm sure most of you here would love to see that happen, we cannot let it. An agent looking like a traitor would lead to any and all routes of information out of NCIS being closed down. We'd lose sources," Mickey said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather not lose an entire agency's worth of sources at this moment in time."

"Fine. We'll leave NCIS alone for now. What about AFOSI? The SUV came from there. Why haven't we been tapping them for information?" Morgan asked.

"We cannot risk creating new sources until we're able to identify which of the families ordered the attack on Colin and Bridget. We need to work with what we have, Morgan," Fredrick said. He sighed heavily and leaned back in his seat. His children were all chomping at the bit to get revenge for Colin, but Fredrick was at wit's end keeping them in line.

"So we just keep doing the same rounds with our sources over and over again as they continue to tell us they have nothing?" Morgan asked incredulously.

"Yes," Mickey answered before Fredrick could snap. "Something will give soon. It has to."

The alarm on Mickey's phone went off. He quickly shut it off, wincing when he noticed the time. He had stayed at the manor far longer than he intended to.

"Continue to argue amongst yourselves. I'm going to continue to do my job," Mickey shot at Morgan, leaving before any of the siblings could argue back.

* * *

"It's been a couple weeks. Why can't I go visit Colin, even with an escort?" Jeanne pressed.

"Because it is taking us far longer than we'd like to find out all the players involved with the incident at Greco's. We know which Russian family ordered it, but we keep finding more loose ends the more we dig," Tony replied. He twirled a pen in his hand as he sat on the couch and watched Jeanne pace back and forth in front of him. She'd been stuck in the safe house since they reached the time limit of keeping her on the Navy Yard grounds, and she was going stir crazy.

"Even with an escort?!" Jeanne repeated, giving Tony an exasperated look.

Tony gave her a sympathetic look, but he said nothing at first. Tim was the one who originally ordered such strict restrictions on Jeanne's ability to travel once they found out that a freelancer had been involved with Colin's crash. Gibbs backed Tim up on the decision, pointing out that they were still trying to figure out if Greco's and the crash were connected. There wasn't much room for Tony to argue on Jeanne's behalf seeing as how he agreed with Tim and Gibbs. However, his coworkers weren't standing in front of him. Jeanne was.

"Jeanne, there's a good chance that whomever tried to have Colin and Bridget killed are still trying to finish the job. There's a guard outside Colin's ICU room all 24 hours of the day. Without knowing who did it, we can't even guarantee the reliability of the hospital staff. Anyone could be a possible assassin," Tony finally said once he found the words.

Jeanne let out a groan and settled onto the couch next to Tony. She knew there was no arguing when Tony used that tone. Certain things about him were still the same, despite how long it had been since they were first together.

"There's only so many times Bridget can smuggle me junk food before I get fed up and demand to go get some, myself, you know," Jeanne said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I don't think what Bridget Murphy has been doing counts as smuggling. She's been handing in receipts to Tim," Tony replied, pulling a laugh out of Jeanne. "I didn't realize Tim was capable of keeping a straight face when being handed a receipt from McDonald's."

"Apparently he's better at understanding how bad McFlurry cravings can be," Jeanne said, lightly elbowing Tony in the side.

"How you can eat that is beyond my comprehension," Tony shuddered. "Just the thought of it makes my teeth hurt."

"Says the man capable of downing a whole pizza all by himself," Jeanne said.

"It's not loaded with sugar," Tony said in defense. "I understand a sweet tooth, but come on."

Jeanne laughed and shook her head. She fell silent and pondered over the situation as she leaned against Tony. If she had stayed with Tony all those many months ago, would she still be in this situation? Of course she wouldn't have been at Greco's at the time of the attack, but would they still have been attacked elsewhere? Would the Murphy's still even have interacted with her once Tony's real identity was revealed? So many ifs.

"Do you see any end in sight?" Jeanne asked. She didn't clarify what she meant, but Tony likely didn't need it.

"No. Grudges between the families could last for years, if not decades," Tony said. He let out a heavy sigh and put an arm around Jeanne's shoulders. "We'll be lucky if we're done with this any time soon."

"One can hope," Jeanne trailed off. God, she wished she could speak with Mickey right now. But with Colin out of commission, anyone who wasn't Fredrick Murphy was lucky if they got Mickey's ear. According to Bridget, Mickey had been quite busy lately. Part of Jeanne didn't want to know what it was he was doing.


	20. Freelancers

Tim and Tony sat together on a crate in the middle of the empty warehouse. It was early enough that not even the birds were singing yet. Tim was debating going home and right back to bed after they were done here.

"Are you sure they came up with something? I find it hard to believe that they found something where we couldn't," Tim asked.

"Darren has yet to let me down, McWorried. Relax," Tony replied, not breaking his staring contest with the middle distance.

"We have a mob war on our hands, Tony. I have plenty reasons to be worried," Tim said. "One of your contacts finding information when we haven't been able to is not something I'm too keen about trusting."

"How about we see what he has before judging, yeah?" Tony said.

"As long as you pass the bowl of salt, because I'm going to need more than a grain," Tim shot back.

Tony threw an irritated look at Tim, but he said nothing. Tony would be lying if he said he wouldn't be reacting the same way if he was in Tim's shoes. A career freelance mobster wasn't exactly the number one choice for information. But Tony knew Darren since Peoria, so the source was solid.

"Alright!" Darren called out as he burst into the room, walking with purpose. No one trailed behind him. "Let's get this over and done with ricky tick because my ass ain't here."

"Darren, you called the meeting," Tony pointed out as he stood up from the crate.

"I'm not here," Darren repeated, slowing down as he approached Tony and Tim.

"Why are Tony and I here alone, then?" Tim played along. He got up from the crate, too, so they all would be eye level with each other.

"The freelancer who tried to take out the two Murphy siblings ain't no freelancer," Darren replied, getting straight to the point. "Remember when I gave you that information on Colin Murphy and warned you how one of my sources likes to blab a little too much? That works to my advantage once in a while. I've been sniffing around lately because all my Italian clients suddenly stopped sending out purchase orders. Everyone knows all the Italian families have been stockpiling, so it was immediately fishy to suddenly  _not_  have any contact from any of them."

"You've been completely cut off?" Tony asked in shock.

"I ain't getting shit. A few of my contacts ain't getting shit. The Italian Families have been cutting off communication with freelancers left and right," Darren said.

"How does this tie-in to the attack on Colin and Bridget Murphy?" Tim pressed. It was worrisome to learn that the Italian Families were distancing themselves from freelancers, but that was a whole different issue.

"Blabber Mouth ain't a freelancer. He's purebred Russian," Darren said.

Tim and Tony exchanged a look.

"I have a feeling a name is going to be coming out of your lips, next," Tony commented.

"He's a low-level Malinov," Darren continued. "I went to him to find out what the fuck has been going on with the Italian families, and he started going on and on about how one of his higher ups was waxing lyrical on how they had to off one of their men for not finishing the job with the Murphy's."

"Son of a bitch!" Tim exclaimed, turning away as he rubbed his hands through his hair in frustration. They already knew the Malinov's were involved with what happened at Greco's. Now they had a source confirming the Malinov's were involved with the attack on Colin and Bridget, as well.

"Are they still looking to finish it?" Tony asked.

"Blabber Mouth didn't say, but I doubt it. Their message got across to Daddy Murphy just the same. Trying to kill those two a second time would be overkill," Darren said. "Now, I may be a freelancer and all, Tony, and I try not to take sides, but this all is turning to shit. If Blabber Mouth is correct and the Russians are beginning full out  _war_ , then I'm cutting off contact with him. Freelancer or not, I'm still fucking Irish."

"Do you have any contacts with any of the other families?" Tim asked, turning back to Tony and Darren.

"I know someone in most families, McGee," Darren replied. He leveled a stern look with Tim, trying to figure out what Tim was asking for.

"We've got the Italians stockpiling and the Russians attacking the Irish. What have the French been doing throughout all of this? Surely some of them have noticed what the others have been doing, despite their own in-fighting," Tim continued. "Hell, their in-fighting started all of this."

"It's been business as usual with my French clients. They haven't been acting any differently," Darren replied.

"Anything on the O'Riley's, specifically?" Tony asked, going down another line of possibilities. "We know they've been working with the Malinov's."

"Nah dah, there, too," Darren said. "Tony, I'm lucky I found out what I did about the so-called freelancer. There isn't much more information that the families are allowing us non-members hear about."

Tony sighed and shared a look with Tim. Confirmation that the driver of the SUV came from the Malinov family redirected their investigation back towards the Russians. The FBI was going to be going into overdrive to find anything new on the topic.

"Anything else, Darren?" Tony asked.

"No. Given your previous interest in Colin Murphy, I figured you would want to know about this right away, but I've got nothing else for you," Darren said.

"Alright. Like you said, your ass ain't here," Tony replied.

Darren didn't respond. He promptly spun on his heel and bee-lined it for the door, glancing at his watch with a muttered swear word. The door slammed behind him.

"Still need that bowl of salt?" Tony spoke up after a few moments of silence.

"At this point, I need the margarita that goes with it," Tim groaned.

"The Malinov's are, for sure, attacking the Murphy's. That also makes the O'Riley's compliant. We need to find out if they're working with anyone else, Tim. The Murphy's are the center of all of this for some reason."

"The French in-fighting," Tim said.

"What does the French have to do with the Murphy's being targeted by the Malinov's and the O'Riley's?" Tony asked in an incredulous tone.

"Because the Murphy's have Jeanne Benoit. The French in-fighting began because the CIA plants in the Benoit Family have not been able to maintain control. Tony, if the other families think Jeanne has the ability to name her father's successor, or if they think  _she_  is her father's successor, then they'll want to stop her from stabilizing the French families. As long as the French continue to fight amongst themselves, they'll never be strong enough to contest the others. It's in all the other families' best interests that the Benoit family does  _not_  find a stable leader. Once they stabilize, all the other French families would follow suit," Tim rambled.

"By that logic, it's also in the Murphy's best interest to not let Jeanne name a successor. Why would they, for lack of better phrasing, harbor her?" Tony pointed out.

"They must have an internal reason to want the French families to stabilize again. I know it's a long shot, Tony, but is there any chance that Jeanne knows  _anything_  about what her father did?"

"Absolutely not," Tony snapped, irritation appearing on his face. "We're not dragging Jeanne back into the Navy Yard to interrogate her, yet again, about her father, Tim."

"I'm not suggesting that!" Tim replied. "But a casual conversation with her in the safe house may be in order. Even if she knows nothing about her father's business, there's a chance someone has approached her about it before. We have to know  _who_  it was, if it did happen."

"God fucking damn it," Tony said, turning away from Tim. Tony really,  _really_  didn't want to get Jeanne involved any more than necessary. But Tim was right. If anyone had approached Jeanne about naming a successor for her father, especially recently, then NCIS needed to know. Whoever it was would reveal the motivations of many of the parties involved.

"Tony," Tim started.

"I'll do it, Tim. I'll bring it up," Tony interrupted. He turned back to Tim. "I should be the one to do it, anyway. Jeanne knows I wouldn't bring up her father unless absolutely necessary."

Tim nodded in acknowledgment, thinking over everything Darren's piece of information affected. Who knows if NCIS and the FBI were able to collect their own information fast enough to act on it in time. They needed to move quickly if they wanted to prevent another attack on the Murphy family. Don Murphy would only take so many hits before retaliating with the full strength of the resources at his disposal.


	21. Slow Developments

Colin's eyes slowly fluttered open as he barely registered the room around him. The smell, that sickeningly clean smell that only a hospital room could have, hit him first. The tube down his throat registered next, causing Colin to jerk to full awareness as he panicked. Loud beeping increased around him, signaling the spike in his heart beat, and it was soon joined by the rapid-fire orders of medical staff as they flooded into the room.

"Mr. Murphy, I need you to relax for me. It'll only take us a moment to remove your breathing tube," the nurse next to Colin's head said firmly. Colin was barely able to keep himself still long enough for the slimy tube to be removed from his esophagus, but he tried.

"Well, well, well! You continue to amaze, Mr. Murphy. We were sure you weren't going to wake up so soon," a doctor said as she quickly checked all of Colin's vitals. "Your family will be glad to hear about this."

"Wh..." Colin attempted to speak, but he was interrupted by the nurse from before.

"Don't try to speak, Mr. Murphy. Your throat needs some time to recover from having the breathing tube in for so long. We'll get you a cup of ice to help soothe the irritation."

"You're at George Washington Memorial, in ICU," the doctor said. She pulled the stethoscope from around her neck and placed the head on Colin's chest to listen to his lungs as he haphazardly breathed on his own. "You were in a hit-and-run accident with your sister several weeks ago. Don't worry, your sister is fine. She was in and out of the ER that same evening. You, however, have been causing us all a bit of worry. Tracy, could you please go fetch that cup of ice you just offered?"

Tracy nodded and left the room with the rest of the staff that was trailing out now that Colin was taken care of. The doctor listened to Colin's lungs for a few more moments before pulling her stethoscope away and wrapping it around her neck again. She pulled a pen light out of her pocket and turned it on, holding it in front of Colin's face like a torch.

"Mr. Murphy, could you please follow the light without moving your head?" the doctor asked. She slowly moved it back and forth, paying close attention to the movement of Colin's eyes as they tracked the pen light's path. Letting out a satisfied noise, the doctor clicked the pen light off and shoved it back into her pocket. "You're doing very well, Mr. Murphy. Better than we were thinking you'd do upon waking up. Your head was knocked around quite a bit, so we weren't sure you'd have full mental capabilities."

Tracy entered the room with the promised cup of ice and returned to her spot near the top of the bed. She glanced at the doctor in case there was a reason to delay offering Colin a spoonful right away, but the doctor said nothing so Tracy immediately scooped some ice out and placed it near Colin's mouth.

"Here you go, Mr. Murphy. This will help make the scratchiness go away," Tracy said.

Colin swallowed hard, wincing from the pain, before opening his mouth to let Tracy put the ice in.

"I'm Dr. Mina Henderson. I've been monitoring you since the accident," Dr. Henderson spoke up, finally realizing that Colin hadn't heard her name yet. "I'm going to have one of our neurologists, Dr. Henry Portillo, give you an exam to see if the injuries you obtained during the crash caused any permanent brain damage. We've been able to do scans of your head, but certain things we just wouldn't know for certain until you woke up. In the mean time, I'm going to give your family a call to let them know you're awake now. Any questions?"

Colin mulled over everything Dr. Henderson just told him. He felt so groggy. Being hung over wasn't even this bad. Finally fully registering what he was told, Colin shook his head slowly to say he didn't have any questions.

"Good. I'll leave you in Tracy's capable hands and go make some phone calls," Dr. Henderson said. She patted Colin on the arm, gave him and Tracy a smile, and headed out the door.

"You are a very lucky man, Mr. Murphy," Tracy said as she offered Colin another spoon of ice shavings. "I'm sure you're feeling starved. We'll need to wait until Dr. Portillo is done with his exam of you before we can remove the IV that's currently 'feeding' you, but I'll make sure to send a message to Dr. Henderson reminding her to let us know what kind of diet restrictions we should put you on. You'll start with liquids, of course, but if she okays it then we may be able to start giving you solids sooner rather than later."

Colin grunted in acknowledgment, settling deeper into the hospital bed beneath him as he adjusted his posture into something more comfortable. All his muscles screamed from being used for the first time in weeks.

"Ah!" Tracy said, noticing Colin's wince from moving. "That's another thing to ask about. I'll see about getting a physical therapist in here some time today. We've had one flexing your limbs the last couple weeks, but I'm sure you'd appreciate a more thorough stretching session now that you're awake."

Colin turned his head so he could properly look Tracy in the face. She was a pretty, young 30-something who clearly somehow managed to keep a positive outlook in her job. Colin wondered if it was something that was contagious between employees in the medial field because Jeanne was the same way. Tapping the bed with a hand to get Tracy's attention to it, Colin slowly moved his hand in a scribbling motion.

"I'll see if we have a spare whiteboard somewhere so you can communicate without speaking," Tracy said with a smile. "I'm sure Dr. Portillo will be pleased that you're coherent enough to write. I'll be right back."

Tracy set the cup of ice shavings aside and headed out the door, leaving Colin alone for the first time since he woke up. It gave him the chance to look over himself without interruption. The insane amount of wires and tubes that were connected to his body in different ways was unnerving, but Colin wasn't about to risk detaching any of them. However, it did give him one idea. Ask what kind of painkillers they were giving him because they were worrying  _very_  well.

* * *

Tim read over the report Sacks had sent him way regarding the Malinov family. Tim had an idea of which family member was the Blabber Mouth Darren had mentioned, but he didn't want to take the risk confirming it. It was a moot point, anyway, since the man wasn't ranked high enough to be of any worth to their investigation. Possible new source or not, NCIS had people higher ranking than Blabber Mouth acting as informants for them.

"We have been running a wild goose chase with this. We need a new direction to figure this out," Ziva exclaimed, pushing herself away from her desk with frustration. "We know, for sure, that the Malinov family has been directly attacking the Murphy family. How is it that we are finding nothing on it?!"

"They're good at hiding their tracks, Zee-va," Tony replied before Tim could.

"Obviously," Ziva said.

"Working on the assumption that Darren's information is correct, Ziva, what would you suggest we do next? Any hope of pinning it on them died with their man," Tim pointed out. "What we need to do is switch focuses, not switch tactics."

"To what? Cyber Crimes isn't digging up anything new on the Irish families," Tony said, turning away from his computer to look at Tim.

"There's always the Italians, Tony. Darren made it clear that we're not going to get much more information from any freelancers. Let's try to get as much as we can from our informants who are family members before they all go quiet," Tim said. He sighed and closed Sacks' file, tossing it aside. The file wasn't going to give Tim any more ideas of what to do with the Russians right now.

"True. It'll be a pain if we don't take advantage of that forewarning," Tony admitted. Tim opened his mouth to continue speaking, but he was interrupted by his phone ringing. He diverted his attention and grabbed the phone off its cradle.

"Agent McGee," Tim answered.

" _Tim, it's Morgan_ ," Morgan Murphy said on the other end of the line. " _Colin's awake_."

"He is?" Tim asked, shocked at the sudden news.

" _Yeah. So far, it's looking like he's fine. He can't talk much, but he's been able to react to everything everyone's been saying to him. Might want to check him out, yourself, to make sure he's still the same pain in the ass he's supposed to be._ "

"Thank you for the update. I'll swing by George Washington Memorial later," Tim said. Morgan didn't bother with saying good bye. He hung up. Tim hung up his phone as well, rolling his eyes at Morgan's abrupt end to the call.

"What's going on at George Washington Memorial?" Tony asked, pulling Tim's attention back to him and Ziva.

"Colin's finally awake," Tim replied.

"Really?" Ziva said, just as surprised as Tim had been.

"Yes. Morgan didn't say much else, so I'm going to assume he only called as a courtesy because one of his parents made him. Which is understandable, knowing what his mother is like," Tim said.

"It's a couple weeks late, but we've still got grounds to speak with him like we did the rest of the Murphy bunch. We going to question Colin?" Tony asked.

"Let's give the doctors a few days to clear him for that before we go causing him any unnecessary stress, Tony," Tim said. "For now, all I'm going to do later is see how he is. You might want to tell Jeanne, too."

"There won't be any way for me to keep Jeanne from going to see Colin the moment I tell her he's awake," Tony pointed out.

Tim sighed, understanding what Tony was saying. Jeanne wouldn't give a damn about staying in the safe house with this kind of news. She'd want to see Colin as fast as humanly possible.

"Start processing her release paperwork," Tim said to Tony.

"Wait, what?" Tony asked, surprised.

"We can't keep Jeanne in the safe house forever, Tony," Tim said.

"I know that, Tim," Tony replied with an eye roll.

"So let's take advantage of Colin waking up to let her out," Tim continued, ignoring Tony's sass. "I'm sure the conversation you still need to have with her will go more smoothly if she didn't feel like a caged animal."

Ziva watched the discussion bounce back and forth between Tim and Tony, confused about what 'conversation' Tim was talking about, but she remained silent. Tony had mentioned their early morning visit to one of his contacts that morning. She assumed it had something to do with that.

"Okay, fine. When are you going to go update Gibbs and Fornell on all this? Once Jeanne is out, we're going to have to watch for any more attempts on her life," Tony asked.

"I'll let them know what's going on the next time I see them. Ziva, where are we in terms of checking out all of Colin's associates from college?" Tim asked.

"The list is still very long, McGee," Ziva said, pulling herself back to her desk so she could reach her keyboard. "He knew many people and, as you know, running thorough background checks on everyone who is still alive and could plausibly be Micky Murphy takes some time. Unless you wish to divert some of Cyber Crimes' attention to running the background checks, it will take me and Tony another two weeks to finish the list."

Tim swore under his breath. He knew the final list of names of people who could possibly be Mickey Murphy was nearly a mile long, but he hadn't realized that Ziva and Tony were being pulled away from doing background checks so often that several names still remained. However, he also couldn't afford to reassign anyone in Cyber Crimes to do background checks with Ziva and Tony.

"Alright. It'll take as long as it takes to finish them all," Tim finally said. "Now, let's figure out what to do with what we have in front of us. And think of what you two want for lunch. I'll run and get it today."

"Right-o, Mini Bossman!" Tony said, ignoring the glare Tim gave him.

Tim considered throwing something off his desk at Tony, but he held back from doing so. The last thing Tim wanted to do was explain to Jeanne Benoit why Tony had a goose egg on his forehead. Throwing Tony another irritated look, Tim returned to the pile of paperwork on his desk and thought over his plan of attack on getting it all done. Tim  _swore_  he never saw Gibbs deal with this much paperwork.  _Ever_.


	22. Checking In

"You really are a pain in my ass. You and your entire family," Tim cracked as he sat next to Colin's bed. It was nice seeing Colin not-so buried under several layers of medical wires and tubes anymore. It was doubly nice that it was going to be a few days before Colin's throat healed up enough for him to properly sass back without making the pain worse. It gave Tim the ability to give Colin as much shit as possible for the current clusterfuck they were in. Tim snorted as Colin slowly wrote out a message on the whiteboard one of the nurses had given him and turned it towards Tim.

"K. M. A." Tim read out lout. "Kiss my ass, too, buddy. I've got half of NCIS and the FBI chomping at the bit to find a reason to arrest you while you can't run away, and I've got the other half of both agencies close to pulling their hair out trying to find someone we can arrest and hold responsible for hitting you and Bridget. My life hasn't been easy while you've been sleeping."

Colin sluggishly wiped off the board and made his way through another short message. When Tim could finally see it, he let out a sigh before reading it out loud again.

"Jeanne. Yeah, I'm sure you've been wondering why she hasn't made an appearance yet. We're in the process of releasing her from protective custody. We've been keeping her in a safe house since the incident at Greco's," Tim explained. He tapped his fingers on his lap as he thought over how to redirect the conversation. There were so many things that he needed to speak with Colin about, but Tim didn't want to rush anything too fast. Colin had barely been awake a day. "Look, we need to ask you a few questions regarding the day of the crash, but we'll wait a few days until you're able to talk again. Though, I gotta be honest with you, Colin. We need you to remember something from that day. We've exhausted everything we learned from the others after we brought them in for questioning."

Tim watched as Colin, yet again, erased his board and dragged the dry erase marker across it. This had to be the slowest conversation Tim ever had. Still, it was better than speaking to a body. Far better than speaking to a body.

"Bridget?" Tim read aloud in a confused tone. "Colin, Bridget's okay. She walked out of here that night. Hasn't she been in yet?"

Colin let out an irritated noise and continued writing in what free space he had on the board instead of erasing it first. He turned the board back around and stuck it closer to Tim's face in an attempt to stress what he was saying.

"Little sisters lie," Tim read. He jerked his head up and down a few times in recognition, finally understanding what Colin was asking. Bridget must not have looked okay when she was in earlier, and Colin could tell she was lying about something when he asked about it. Tim had lost track of how many times he'd had that exact same kind of interaction with Sarah. Sarah would look like she was stressing over something, Tim would ask what was wrong, and Sarah would lie through her teeth with some bullshit reason in an attempt to make Tim back off. It rarely worked for Sarah. It looked like it wasn't going to work for Bridget, either.

"Colin," Tim began. Whatever Colin saw in Bridget, Tim was sure one of the Murphy siblings would be a more appropriate choice to deal with it. "Colin, I'm involved with the investigation into whoever hit you two. Bridget's a victim, just like you. I can't exactly take her out to coffee to offer her a shoulder to cry on as I figure out what's wrong."

Colin was forced to wipe the board clean again if he wanted to say more. He let out another noise of irritation as he tossed the cloth aside, forcing Tim to reach down and pick it up off the floor when it slipped over the edge of the bed. Colin carefully wrote out another message, this one longer than the short ones he'd been using, and shoved the marker cap back on the marker with a click before completely handing the whiteboard over to Tim.

'I don't want you to baby her, you dipshit. I want you to smack her upside the head and threaten to have one of the others sic Vivian on her if she doesn't stop lying to me,' Tim read silently. Tim snorted in amusement as he reread Colin's words a second time, shaking his head slowly. That sounded like the Colin he was roommates with back in college. Tim would swear he had heard these exact words from Colin before, when Colin was on the phone with someone back home.

"How about I just pass the message along to Jeanne once her paperwork is processed and let her deal with it?" Tim offered, handing the whiteboard back to Colin. Colin shrugged one shoulder and jerked his head toward it, as if to say 'Fine.'

Tim would be lying if he tried to say this entire situation wasn't making him feel awkward. The last time he and Colin spoke, it had been the heated discussion they had in the middle of the Bull Pen. Tim really shouldn't be acting so friendly with Colin after that. But Colin nearly dying activated what Sarah called Tim's 'Touchy Feely' side, and Tim couldn't make himself to give the same attitude he had back on the day of Colin and Bridget's accident. That would just be grinding salt into the wound, in Tim's eyes. He couldn't do that to an old college friend of his, no matter what the man had done since they graduated.

"Listen, Colin. I..." Tim began to say. Colin's attention instantly returned to Tim, putting Tim on the spot to keep talking. It wasn't like Colin could fill the awkward silence, himself, like he used to do. Tim let out a sigh before continuing. "I'm sorry things are turning out this way. I wish things could be different."

A horrible attempt at some kind of noise escaped Colin. The look on Colin's face said it was a snort of amusement. Tim rolled his eyes, his brain already hearing the comment Colin obviously wanted to say. Sarah wasn't the only one to give Tim shit for this kind of thing.

"One of us has to have a healthy emotional state. Since you've refused to since our freshman year, clearly it has to be me," Tim said before Colin could write anything down on his whiteboard. "I mean it, Colin. Everything has gone to shit the last several months. Believe me, I wish things could go back to what they were like this time last year. Things were definitely easier. Do you know the kind of freak out I had when I realized that you were the Colin Murphy we've been dealing with at work? I mean, I know you found out about it because you said so in your letter, but do you really know? The FBI knew about it before I did, too. Apparently they discovered it when doing a background check on you and decided not to say anything to me about it. That's a fucking sign of confidence."

'You're ranting' in Colin's scrawl was shoved in Tim's face, pulling another eye roll from Tim.

"I have reason to. You are a pain in my ass," Tim repeated with a huff. Sighing again, Tim ran his hands over his face and slouched deeper into his seat.


	23. No More

 

Bridget walked down the manor hallway with purpose. The clicks of her heels echoed off the walls with each step closer and closer to the room she was heading toward. She was done being kept in the dark. Colin had barely been home a week and already his comings and goings had turned questionable again. Staying out of the loop was no longer acceptable to Bridget. Not when she and Colin nearly died without her knowing why. Happy to see a sliver of light under the doors – the others had to be full swing in the middle of a meeting – Bridget grabbed the door knob and nearly slammed the door open without breaking stride.

“Bridget!” Fredrick said in surprised. All the other Murphy's jumped in surprise at Bridget's interruption, as well. “Sweetheart, what's wrong? Can it wait? We're busy at the moment.”

Bridget gave her father a dark look as she closed the door behind her and leaned back on her heels to press her back into the door.

“Father, I am not as naive as everyone in this room thinks I am,” Bridget said.

Everyone sat up straighter when they registered Bridget's tone. She _never_ referred to their father as 'Father'. She also seemed to have inherited the 'You _will_ listen to me' tone that Fredrick used frequently.

“I didn't realize any of us treated you in such a way,” Fredrick said. Bridget scoffed and walked forward toward the table.

“You didn't realize that I haven't attended a single one of these secret meetings of yours before? I know I'm ignorant about what you all _really_ do, because you've kept me that way, but that doesn't mean I'm an idiot,” Bridget said. She stepped up next to the table, between Tara and Scott, and leaned forward onto her hands. “I'm 27-years-old. I deserve answers, Father. Colin and I nearly _died,_ and I wouldn't have known why.”

“Bridget, now's not the time,” Colin said from his spot down the table.

“Oh, shut up, Colin!” Bridget snapped, turning her attention to her brother. “You've barely been home that long! You should be in bed, not doing whatever the fuck it is you're doing here!”

“Sweetheart, you don't want to know. Trust me. You not knowing means you can live your life the way you want,” Fredrick tried to reason.

“Not anymore, I can't! What part of _I nearly died_ is not registering for you? I can't leave the manor without being paranoid that some stranger is going to approach me and finish the job. I deserve to understand why!” Bridget said.

“Explaining would require time we don't have at the moment,” Morgan spoke up, raising his eyes to meet his sister's.

“Then you'll be _making_ time because I'm not leaving this room without answers,” Bridget hissed. She glanced around the room at everyone's faces and paused when she realized one was missing. “Where's Mickey?”

“Dismissed for the rest of the evening. Bridget, darling, now _really_ isn't the best time,” Fredrick replied.

“Do not make me go hunt Mickey down and demand answers from him. You know he won't say no to anything I outright ask him,” Bridget said. “And I won't care if he's at work. I'll damn well ask him in front of his coworkers.”

“Bridget, sit down,” Margaret sighed. She rolled her eyes when most of the others gave her dirty looks and turned to address their father. “Dad, just let her sit in on the rest of the meeting. Once we're done, anyone who's available to stay behind can answer her questions then. Like Morgan said, we don't have time at the moment to argue with her. If Bridget is in a position to demand to be in the know, then we should let her be in the know.”

“Mickey is _not_ going to be happy that this is the meeting we allow Bridget to sit in on for the first time,” Colin pointed out.

“Mickey can deal with his own problems in his own time. Bridget, sit down,” Margaret repeated.

Bridget maintained eye contact with Margaret as she moved to the only open seat left at the table, the one opposite of her father, and sat down. Bridget moved her eyes from Margaret to Fredrick and spread her hands out as to suggest that he continue with what he was saying before. A couple of the Murphy children let out snickers as they watched Bridget channel their father, but they fell silent when Fredrick looked in their directions.

“Alright, sweetheart. You can stay. But that means you stay until the _end_ ,” Fredrick relented.

“Of course,” Bridget agreed. She let out a heavy breath and settled her weight deeper into her seat.

* * *

“Does anyone know where the hell Sacks is?” Tim asked the room as he returned from checking in with Cyber Crimes.

“Not in the slightest,” Tony said, not looking up from his computer.

“I don't go out of my way to keep track of his movements,” Ziva replied, also not looking up.

Tim sighed and returned to his desk. He wasn't going to chase Sacks all over the building to get the paperwork he needed. Tim would have to wait for Sacks to come to him.

“Okay,” Tim said as he settled into his seat. “Updates.”

“We have eliminated every single person Colin Murphy has ever had any significant contact with, all the way down to the nurse who handed him to his mother seconds after he was born. They _all_ have at least one reason or another that would remove them from the list of possible candidates of who Mickey Murphy could be,” Tony summarized.

“Of everyone who is still alive,” Ziva continued. “The most common reason we've found to remove someone from the list is that they had an alibi when a confirmed Mickey Murphy killing took place. They were in a different city. A different country. At work, with security footage to confirm it. In jail. All of them solid alibis. If Mickey Murphy truly is one of these people, McGee, then he does an excellent job at covering his tracks.”

“We're missing something,” Tim insisted. He refused to believe that there was no trace left behind.

“Well, McBossman, Ziva and I were talking, and we think there's a possibility that Colin _isn't_ the Murphy child that recruited Mickey,” Tony said.

“You think one of the others may have known Mickey first?” Tim asked. It made a certain sort of sense. If Colin was introduced to Mickey through a sibling, then of course there was a chance that any trace of their interaction had been wiped long ago. Colin and Mickey being close now didn't necessarily mean they were always that way.

“Where else can we look? Even our search through Jeanne Benoit's background failed to give us results,” Ziva pointed out. “Our next move should be to start searching for people the other Murphy children have been associated with.”

“Start with Morgan. Might as well start with the oldest of the Murphy children and work our way down,” Tim said. He rubbed at his face with his hands as he let out a small groan. This entire situation was far more frustrating than any other case he'd be on. Finding evidence for the identity of Mickey Murphy was beginning to feel like looking for a piece of hay in a hay stack. Utterly pointless. 

 


End file.
